Bastard Sword: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game

This attribute represents the dexterity and nimbleness of the character. It covers fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination and balance.

A character's constitution represents not only his health but also their resistance to different types of punishment.

Constitution also affects the rate at which a character recovers from injuries.

Strength represents the physical power and explosiveness of a character.

Erudition is the attribute for formal learning, academic knowledge and book-smartness.

This attribute represents the strength of personality and charisma of the character. Characters with a high persona score tend to be very polarising individuals and leave a strong impression on the people they meet.

Wisdom is the sagacity and common sense of a character. A down-to-earth, no-nonsense, resourceful character would be one with a high wisdom score.

A basic test is a single roll made against a fixed difficulty level. If a type of test is not specified, it is most likely a basic test.

Opposed tests are used when two (or more) characters are working against each other.

A roll is made for each character. Both rolls can be made with the same skill or with different ones.

The character who obtained the most successes wins.

The difference between the two results gives the number of hits scored by the victor.

If both characters get the same number of successes, the status quo is preserved.

If the situation makes it impossible to determine the status quo, the GM declares, prior to the rolls being made, which side has the advantage; this side wins the test in case of a tie.

Characters will have many opportunities to collaborate on arduous tasks. In those situations, every character contributing makes a test. The successes of all participants are added together to beat the difficulty level.

The GM can limit the number of characters allowed to work effectively on a task.

Group tests are used when multiple characters simultaneously perform the same task in a situation where their success or failure is linked. A player can transfer part of the successes of his character to one or more allies.

Not all tasks can be resolved in one swift action. Some undertakings have a higher difficulty level than what could be achieved in one roll, but a character can work on them over time; rolling tests are the appropriate approach for those situations.

Rolling tests are made as a series of rolls, each having its dice pool and representing an amount of time passed. The successes from all those rolls are aggregated together to beat a difficulty level.

Tasks suitable for rolling tests include crafting, academic research, foraging, picking a lock and training an animal. Jumping, picking pockets, resisting the elements and combat actions are rarely done as rolling tests.

There are two types of rolling tests: first-fail and setback.

To preserve the flow of the game, players can solve lengthy tasks in a single roll. The result of this roll either determines:

If the GM knows how much of a task can be accomplished with a single success, he can refer to the chart below to figure out how long the character takes to complete it or how well he performs.

To use the chart:

A player can use spirit points to purchase bonus dice for a test.

Every half-order of magnitude of spirit points spent grants one bonus die.

Purchasing bonus dice this way does not allow to exceed the bonus dice limit.

Bonus dice purchased through spirit points for rolling tests are available for a single roll. A player can purchase bonus dice for multiple rolls, but the cost has to be paid for each one separately.

A character performing an extended task can purchase bonus dice for the whole undertaking, but the cost is increased by one HOM.

A big part of managing a character’s spirit is ensuring he has opportunities to replenish it.

Action tempo is used when there is a need to keep track of time in a precise manner. Combat is the primary example of this tempo, but it is also used for other edge-of-your-seat situations: races, infiltration missions, escapes from collapsing buildings, etc.

Action tempo is divided into rounds and resolved in order of initiative. Specific rules for this tempo are detailed in the combat section.

Interaction tempo is when actions are resolved one after the other as they are performed, but the exact timing is not primordial. It is the perfect tempo for social situations, puzzle-solving and dungeon exploration.

In this tempo, the GM narrates a scene, the environment, the people present, and the events taking place. The players respond by describing what they want their characters to do. The GM can demand tests before relating how the characters’ actions affect a situation.

A scene can quickly go from interaction tempo to action tempo (and vice-versa).

Transition tempo covers long periods of time passed without much happening.

The GM can advance the timeline to any point just by stating that a certain amount of time has passed. He should allow the players to describe their characters’ activities during this time. If the characters’ occupations demand tests, they are usually resolved as extended tasks.

This tempo is appropriate for prolonged travel, periods of rest, long-term projects or time between adventures.

Skills gain experience by being used.

Every time the tempo of the game changes, players can add one experience point to a skill their character used during the last tempo. If a player is unsure if he used a skill, this one hasn’t been impactful and shouldn’t be chosen for an experience point gain. If no test has been made, no experience is gained.

The GM can also award experience to one of a character’s skills if it has been used remarkably (to progress the campaign in an original manner, in a critical situation, etc).

For an attribute to gain experience, the character must exert himself while using it and must sleep to recuperate.

When a player purchases bonus dice via spirit points for a skill test, he can mark one of the attributes involved in this test. When a character wakes up from a complete long rest (one where he regains spirit), one marked attribute gains one experience point. All attributes are then unmarked.

A player can raise the rank of one of his character’s skills or attributes as soon as it has as many experience points as its current rank (as always, including its family’s rank) plus 1, multiplied by 4.

As soon as three skills inside the same family have a rank of 1 or higher (not including the family’s rank), they are all reduced by 1, and, in exchange, their family’s rank is increased by 1.

The quintessential quality of heroes, courage represents how a character reacts in the face of danger and his tolerance towards risk.

Faith represents a character’s relationship with his God (or Gods). It is not only about belief but also about the respect and reverence expressed by the character towards divine entities.

Not everybody has the same relationship with truth; some hold it as the most sacred principle, while others see it only as necessary as it is convenient.

It is good to be aware of one’s worth, but it can be tricky to assess it properly.

There are multiple competing theories on how much one should indulge in carnal pleasure. Temperance reflects a character’s position towards this question.

The strength score of a character is relative to its size; a huge character with a strength score of three is of average strength for a creature of that size.

When two characters of different sizes oppose each other in a matter of strength (any roll involving the strength attribute, including strength-based damage), the strength score of the larger creature is increased by one HOM for every size category difference between the two characters.

Effectively, a large character with a strength score of three is as strong as a small character with a strength score of six.

A character with an initiative greater than 0 has the option to delay his turn and act on the negative of his initiative number. If any player takes this option, the GM must countdown past 0, into the negatives, until the last character has acted. Therefore, the character with the highest initiative chooses to act first or last. This decision only lasts a round; on the subsequent rounds, the character can return to his positive initiative or stay on the negative.

Characters with an initiative greater than 0 can perform two actions in the same round: one at their regular initiative and one at their negative initiative number.

Performing a second action requires the player to split his dice pool between both (more details in the "dice limit per round" section below).

A step is the basic measure of movement. Most humanoid characters can move 12 steps per round.

For most bipedal characters, the length of a step is about half their height; for medium-sized characters, that would be about one metre.

A character can run using an action and making a running[athleticism] test; every success allows him to add half his movement speed to his regular movement.

Scoring no success on a running[athleticism] test causes the character to fall prone; negative successes cause 1d4 of bludgeoning damage each (details about damage further).

The type of terrain can reduce the movement of a character:

Those ranges of attack are used for melee combat.

The actual distances for each of those ranges depend on the size of the characters. Two characters of different sizes can be engaged together in melee but be considered at different ranges.

Colossal and monumental characters' ranges of attack cover vast areas.

As soon as a character is inside the range of attack of an opponent’s weapon (or any shorter range), the two are considered engaged. A character can be engaged with multiple opponents at the same time.

A melee weapon can be used outside its range of attack as long as the wielder is engaged with his target, but its wielder suffers one HOM malus per range outside the weapon’s effective range.

While outside his weapon’s effective range of attack, a character cannot cause damage to his opponent, but he can apply control effects.

Details about damage and control effects are found further in this chapter.

The far range is for missile weapons.

Every far-range weapon has a number recorded next to its far-range notation; this is its range increment.

Details about ranged combat and range increment are found further in this chapter.

The target of a melee attack can defend himself by making a melee combat roll (with the appropriate skill for his wielded weapon) to oppose the attacker’s roll. He is the defender.

If a character has already used all his available dice for the round, he cannot defend against an attack. He focused his attention elsewhere and can now be attacked unopposed.

A character attacking an opponent from the side or the back receives bonus dice.

The front, flank and rear of a character are divided as such:

If the character is wearing a closed-face helmet, those values become:

A character being attacked from the flank/rear can turn to face his opponent if he is aware of the attacker’s presence and if the attack is not a retaliation. Pivoting to face an attack grants a retaliation to the other enemies surrounding the character; the retaliations are done after the pivot, so turning one’s back to an enemy is very dangerous.

A character defending himself while being flanked/reared (not facing the attacker) and winning the opposed melee combat roll must turn towards the attacker to impose any control effect or cause any damage (this does not provoke retaliation). He may choose not to do so, but this means forgoing any hits scored.

On his turn, a character can pivot in place at no cost, without provoking retaliations.

Once both the attacker and defender have made their roll, the results are compared (if the defender made no roll, his result is 0).

The loser of the exchange loses one spirit point for every hit scored by the winner. In addition, the winner can use his hits to apply control effects or cause damage to his opponent.

A target’s size considerably impacts how hard it is to hit from a distance.

For every size category smaller a target is than the character making the ranged attack, a one success malus is imposed on the range combat roll.

Every size category larger the target is than the attacker grants a bonus die to this last one.

The range increment represents the distance (in metres) a weapon can be used without penalty. One HOM of malus is imposed on the roll every time the range increment is passed.

Only the most excellent attackers can land a hit at four times the range increment, which is unlikely to do much damage at this distance.

A character must have a line of sight on his target to perform a ranged attack.

If other characters or objects obstruct the path between the attacker and his target, those may count as concealment.

The target of a ranged attack can try to dodge the projectile as a reaction if he is aware of the incoming attack.

Dodging is done via a reflex[grace] test opposing the ranged combat test of the attacker.

Dodging allows retaliation.

Cover makes a target harder to hit.

Cover is divided into three categories depending on how much of the target body is covered:

A character is concealed if he is obfuscated by an obstacle that wouldn’t stop a missile but does hinder the view (curtain, smoke, foliage). Concealment works the same as cover, but the malus is reduced by 1 HOM:

The attacker needs to know the location of his target, even in near complete concealment.

Ranged attacks are resolved in a specific order.

If a ranged attack fails, the GM can narrate a different result depending on which step it failed.

There are no control effects for ranged attacks, and the target cannot affect the attacker.

As it is for strength, the armour rating of a character is relative to its size. For every size category larger a character is than the character causing him damage, his total protection ratings for bludgeoning, slashing and piercing are each increased by one HOM.

Major injuries inflict wounds on the characters suffering them.

The type of wound received depends on the source of the damage generating the major injury: piercing and slashing attacks cause bleeding wounds, while bludgeoning strikes cause stunning wounds.

An incapacitated character cannot take actions, reactions or movements. He lies on the ground, still aware of his surroundings and able to speak softly (unless he has been made unconscious).

Attack rolls against incapacitated characters receive three bonus dice. If the attacker causes any damage, he kills the incapacitated character.

A character can be killed in a single blow. If a damage roll has twice as many hits than the character’s longest row of injury boxes (ticked and unticked), the character instantly dies.

A character may attempt to resuscitate a fallen ally using either a first-aid[survival] test or a medicine[science] rolling test (first fail). The difficulty level equals the number of hits scored on the death blow’s damage roll plus the number of rounds the character has been dead. If the roll succeeds, the dead character returns to life, but he remains incapacitated and still suffers from all his wounds and injuries. Death might only be warded off temporarily.

Characters who bled out to death cannot be resuscitated in this way.

A character can rush and act before his initiative number by imposing a malus on every roll he makes for the remainder of the round.

He can temporarily increase his initiative by one to three at the cost of a malus of the same half-order of magnitude:

The character’s initiative returns to normal at the end of the round.

Characters with access to magic can cast spells in combat.

Casting a spell can take multiple rounds, usually done as a first-fail rolling test.

Receiving damage while casting a spell imposes malus on the following casting roll: one half-order of magnitude per injury box checked.

Casting spells causes retaliation.

Casting spells is described in detail in the magic chapter.

The character runs towards an opponent he is not currently engaged with and immediately performs a melee attack.

The player must first make a running[athleticism] test; every success allows the character to move half his movement speed. The character can also use his regular movement as part of his charge.

The character falls prone if the player obtains no success on his running[athleticism] test.

If the character reaches the opponent he is charging towards, he makes a melee attack against this last one. The target of the charge can defend as usual.

If the charging character wins the exchange and purchases damage dice, he can add one HOM of bonus die per success scored on the running[athleticism] test to his damage roll (the limit to bonus dice applies).

A character can focus on defence by sacrificing his offensive potential.

On his turn, the player makes a melee combat test with the appropriate skill for the weapon his character is wielding. The successes obtained are saved in a pool to be used before the player's next turn.

When his character is attacked, instead of defending as a reaction, the player can use successes from his defensive stance pool to subtract successes from the attacker’s roll.

Successes from the defensive stance pool cannot be used to score hits against an attacker.

Performing any non-free action or reaction voids the defensive stance; all remaining successes in the pool are lost.

Unused successes are lost at the beginning of the character's next turn.

A character can roll on the ground to move while being harder to hit.

The player must first declare where he intends his character to move to. He then makes an acrobatics[grace] test; the difficulty level equals the equivalent number of steps the character intends to move.

On a failure, the character moves the equivalent of one step per success rolled and ends up prone.

On a success, the character reaches his intended destination.

Dodge rolling provokes retaliation, both when the character announces his intent to roll and when he enters or traverses the range of attacks of an opponent; the rolling character cannot defend against those retaliations.

Retaliations made against a rolling character suffer a one success malus for every hit scored on the acrobatics[grace] test of the dodge rolling character. The same malus applies to every ranged attack against a character who performed a dodge roll in this round.

A character in close range with an opponent can grab this one by spending one hit scored on a brawling[melee combat] attack/defence and enter grappling.

Grappling changes the circumstances of combat significantly. The specific mechanics of grappling are detailed in their own section later in this book.

A fight can break out when a character cannot, or should not, use his weapons. In those situations, he might want to rely on improvised weapons.

Many objects can be used as a weapon, but not all with the same efficiency. Some objects are similar in shape, weight and balance to an actual weapon: those objects can be used with the skill of the weapon they most resemble. Otherwise, improvised weapons are used with the brawling[melee combat] skill.

The range of attack of an improvised weapon is dependent on its length. The GM is the final arbiter of what is appropriate. Everyday objects that would have a long-range are rather uncommon.

The damage caused by an improvised weapon depends on its weight and the strength of the character. Heavier objects hit harder but are usually harder to control; a malus on melee combat roll can, therefore, be applied.

The damage type caused by improvised weapons is usually bludgeoning, but other types are possible.

Here are some examples of objects of different weights and ranges of attack that can be used as improvised weapons:

Some objects can be used as weapons, but only for a single hit; they immediately break upon contact. Common sense is required, and, as always, the GM has the final say.

A character can perform a rallying cry or make a short speech to inspire his allies; this is done via a persuasion[influence] test (as an action). Every success allows allies to regain some spirit points: one spirit point per success can be distributed amongst any number of allies within hearing distance.

A character cannot inspire himself.

Inspiring provokes retaliations.

This manoeuvre cannot be used outside of action tempo.

A character can try to act fearsome and threatening to intimidate an opponent; this is done via an intimidation[influence] test (done as an action) opposed by an ego[resilience] roll (as a free reaction).

For every hit scored by the intimidating character, the target suffers a one success malus to every hostile action and reaction against this first one. The malus last until the end of the scene or until the intimidating character is incapacitated.

A character suffering from an intimidation malus can make an ego[resilience] test as an action to reduce this malus; the difficulty level is equal to the severity of the malus, and every hit reduces the malus by one.

The target of intimidation must be able to view and hear the intimidating character.

Intimidating an opponent provokes retaliations.

A character struck by a mighty blow can sometimes see fortune smiles upon him, and the damage can be redirected to his equipment instead of his person.

A player whose character is about to receive damage can make a luck[luck] test (as a free reaction) to redirect some of this damage to the character's weapon or armour. The difficulty level is equal to the hits scored on the damage roll.

The player must decide if the damage goes to a piece of his character’s armour or the weapon used in the exchange before making the luck[luck] roll.

A player can only have one lucky break in a scene.

A character can get prone, either by choice or by force of circumstances.

A character willingly going prone must spend one step of movement; this is considered part of his movement.

A character spends half his movement to get up from the prone position.

While prone, every step taken counts as double

A prone character counts as one size category smaller when being targeted by ranged attacks.

Some actions are much more challenging to perform while prone; actions relying on strength or agility are usually good candidates for prone malus.

Fighting in melee combat against standing opponents while prone imposes a three successes malus.

If a character is prone facing the ground, standing opponents attacking him are rearing him.

A character can take a moment in combat to reassess the situation and plan his next moves better.

The player can use an action to roll a new initiative. The new initiative number must be used, even if lower.

While reassessing the situation, a character can raise or lower the visor of his helmet or remove his helmet as a free action.

Reassessing the situation provokes retaliations.

A group of characters wielding shields can work together and lock their shield to repeal attacks.

Characters must wield a weapon with the shield trait at 2 or higher to form a shield wall. A character cannot form a shield wall alone; he must have at least one ally also wearing a weapon with the shield trait of 2 or higher.

A character can declare on his turn that he starts a shield wall as a free action.

Any character immediately adjacent to the character starting the shield wall or to a character who previously joined the shield wall can join the shield wall on his turn as a free action.

A character in a shield wall sees his weapon’s shield trait increased by one for every immediately adjacent ally taking part in the shield wall.

The shield trait is described later in this book, in the weapon trait section.

An injury might not be as bad as it seems at first.

A player can use an action to reduce the severity of a minor injury; this is done with a resist pain[toughness] test. The difficulty level of this test is one HOM per injury box ticked on the line of the targeted injury. For every hit, one injury box can be unticked.

Only injuries taken in the current tempo can be shrugged off; when the tempo changes, the injuries are fixed.

Shrugging off wounds provokes retaliations.

A character armed with a far-range weapon can wait for a better opportunity to shoot an opponent.

On his turn, the player declares his intention to snipe a specific character and the event that will trigger the release of the attack.

If the snipe is triggered, the snipping character can make a ranged attack as a reaction. The difference between the snipping character’s initiative number and the initiative number on which the snipped attack is triggered is imposed as a malus on the attack roll.

Appropriate triggers for a snipe include:

A player can declare more than one trigger for a single snipe.

If the target of a snipe can see the snipping character, he can know he is being targeted; he, however, ignores what the trigger is.

Performing any action or reaction while sniping cancels the snipe.

A character can take a moment to analyse the battlefield, make a plan and give pointers to his allies.

A player can make a tactics[acumen] test (as an action) and use the successes scored to raise or lower the initiative number of his colleagues; every success can shift the initiative number of an ally by one, in either direction. The controlling players of the characters having their initiative changed must agree to the modification.

A character cannot change his own initiative in this way.

Tactical planning provokes retaliations.

A character can provoke an opponent to attract his ire.

A taunt is done via an insult[influence] test; the target opposes it as a free action with a detect motive[influence] test.

Every hit scored on a taunt imposes a one success malus to every action not intended at directly harming the taunting character made by the taunted character. This malus lasts until the tempo changes or until the taunting character is incapacitated.

The target of a taunt must be able to see and hear the taunting character.

A character suffering from a taunt malus can reduce it by doing a detect motive[influence] test as an action. The difficulty level of this test is equal to the taunt malus; every hit reduces the malus by one.

Taunting provokes retaliations.

Weapons and objects can be used as a projectile; they can be hurled with the thrown[ranged combat] skill. An object’s size determines its damage and range increment. Melee weapons have their range increment based on their melee range (except for shield). Throwing large, heavy or unwieldy objects imposes maluses on the attack roll.