game aid Hero Point Use

[roryb]

Hero Points

You can use Hero Points to affect the outcome of a battle or situation and swing the odds to your favour. The following options are available to you:

• A Twist of Fate
• Defy Death
• Splintered Shield, Shattered Sword
• Turn a Mighty Success into a Legendary Success
• Mighty Success
• Shake Off Wounds
• Luck of the Gods
• Decide with the GM

A Twist of Fate

Where the narrative of a scene has not clearly defined a certain piece of information, the player might suggest something that sounds reasonable and make that suggestion become fact. Use of a Hero Point in this manner should be at the discretion of the GM. It shouldn’t be to make major changes in a scene, and can’t be used to change something that has already been determined.

For example, if a character is locked in a dungeon cell, she could use a Hero Point to find a loose stone in the wall that she can pry away, maybe to use to bash the guard over the head when he comes in to serve her slops.

A magician could use a Hero Point to account for one of his spell requirements in this way – for example, if the time of day has not already been established, he could state “Ah, the hour is perfect for my conjuration!”

Defy Death

Hero Points can always be used to keep a Hero alive where he would otherwise be killed. If you have taken sufficient damage to put you at –1 to –5 lifeblood, you may spend a point to put your lifeblood to zero: alive but unconscious.

If you have received sufficient damage to put you below –5 lifeblood, you may spend a Hero Point to stabilize your wounds. You are still unconscious but will recover with several days’ rest.

Splintered Shield, Shattered Sword

If you are carrying a shield, you can absorb all damage caused by a single blow. Alternatively you can block the blow with your weapon (not just a sword) – your shield or weapon is completely destroyed in the process.

Luck of the Gods

You can spend a point to roll the dice again whenever you make a Task Roll (even if you roll a 2, which would otherwise be an automatic failure).

If you do this, you must use the result of your second roll. If your roll includes one or more bonus dice, you use all dice the second time as well.

Mighty Success

Whenever a player succeeds with a Task Roll (or rolls a natural 12), in combat or otherwise, he can raise the ordinary success into a Mighty Success by expending a Hero Point. The result of a Mighty Success depends on what exactly the character is doing but the Hero definitely succeeds spectacularly.

In combat, a Mighty Success gives the following options (from which you select one result):

• Bloody Slash/Crushing Blow: You add +6 to the damage caused.
• Carnage: You may make another attack immediately following this one. It can be against the same or a different opponent. No further Hero Points can be spent on this second attack, though.
• Disarm: If your opponent is wielding a weapon, you can disarm your opponent, rather than cause any damage.
• Knockdown: You can knock down any opponent that is less than or equal to your size – or up to one size larger – and they are thrown back several paces (not good if near a cliff edge!). If attacked whilst regaining their feet, they take a penalty die on their next action.
• Precision Strike: You can hit your enemy in a specific location with the intention of maiming them and affecting their capabilities. You cause damage as normal, but Precision Strike also allows you to give your opponent a penalty die to specific Task Rolls – mostly you’d want to affect their Attack Rolls, but this isn’t absolutely necessary – a stab through the eyeball would apply a penalty die to any Task Roll that involves your opponent’s vision, for example (which may or may not include Attack Rolls). Other options would be to specify a strike point to chop off a tentacle or stinger, or slice open a section of thick hide to create a weak point (reducing the creature’s protection rating to the next lower rating). Some effects will need to be worked out with the GM at the time, but should be similar to the above examples.
• Rabble Slayer: If fighting rabble, the damage result becomes the number of opponents taken out of the fight. They aren’t necessarily dead, but they are certainly not coming back any time soon.

Legendary Success

If you roll a natural 12 when making your Task Roll, that would have been a success in any event (a Mighty Success). By expending a Hero Point, you can raise that result into a Legendary Success, even if you spent a Hero Point rolling the dice again (as long as you got 12 on the second roll).

However, you cannot make a Legendary Success unless you roll 12 on the dice – so you cannot bump up a normal success into a Mighty Success and then spend another Hero Point to make it a Legendary Success.

In combat, a Legendary Success gives the option to choose any two of the options of a Mighty Success. So, for example, when fighting rabble, you can choose Rabble Slayer and add Bloody Slash/ Crushing Blow to slay even more rabble. You can choose the same option twice, if you wish.

Shake Off Wounds

When a Hero has just suffered damage, he can take a momentary pause (using his next action) to shake off some of the effects of that wound. In other words, somehow the wound wasn’t quite as bad as it first seemed. Roll a d6 – this is the number of lifeblood he gets back (but he cannot exceed the lifeblood damage he just took).

Decide with the GM

Any other situational advantage that your GM can be convinced to allow.

Regaining used Hero Points

Any used Hero Points are recovered, in full, at the end of an adventure.

If you had 5 Hero Points to start the adventure and used 3 of them during the adventure, you start your next adventure on 5 points.

If you only had 3 to begin with, you have 3 at the start of the next adventure. You cannot go above your starting allocation of Hero Points, except when you receive a bonus Hero Point from a Calamitous Failure.