Core Rules

About Arpijia

In the world of Arpijia, there are significant dangers. It takes willing heroes, with amazing powers, to rise up and overcome the challenges that await.

Arpijia is a Tabletop Role Playing Game (TTRPG) played among friends. Each game is made up of Player Characters (PCs) who play the game, a Game Master (GM) who runs the game for the PCs, dice, pens, paper, and imagination. In the world of Arpijia, magic exists everywhere, but only the few harness it, and those that do unlock not only the secrets of magic, but of time.

Whether indirectly or directly, those who learn the ways of magic gain the ability to compress time, doing more in the moments between heartbeats. This element of magic that is interwoven with it is called Acceleration. As a player progresses, they gain the ability to do more powerful things more often.

Arpijia is a cooperative game that is reliant on both the PCs and the GM to work together to tell a story. Often, the group will work through a campaign (the series of encounters and story arcs that typically make up a multi-session game of Arpijia). Sometimes, a campaign ends abruptly when the PCs encounter an enemy that is just too powerful, and they fail to find a way to survive, resulting in their deaths. We call that a Total Player Kill (TPK). Many times, however, the PCs find a way and the campaign ends, usually in heroic fashion, with the players victorious, having vanquished a great evil, or freed a people. Whatever the outcome, however, it's usually always a story that will remain a lasting memory.

The Acceleration Paradigm

All creatures in the game are sensitive to the guiding of Aot, the Agent of Time. Some worship Aot, but it is not required to tap into the power it provides. Creatures who learn its ways, often indirectly through the study of a particular class discipline, can harness something called Acceleration, which allows them to quicken themselves, accomplishing more in a short time than should otherwise be possible for a normal creature. This sensitivity is expressed mechanically as Acceleration Points (AP). Every turn during encounters, players roll to determine how much AP they gain. Then, AP is used in exchange for actions in the form of abilities, movements, and attacks.

Game Master (GM)

The Game Master is responsible for setting the landscape, describing the world, its people, and the dangers that await. The GM presents decisions and challenges to the Player Characters, which they must overcome. Every GM is different, with some focusing on telling a grand story, while others focus on emphasizing the intricacies of combat situations and tactics.

Baseline Attributes

All characters start with the following attributes, which are later modified by Lineage, Specialties, and Class choices. These are referred to as Baseline:

Health: 50
Damage: 1
Evasion: 5
Spirit: 1
Willpower: 0
Acceleration Point (AP) Max: 10

During Encounters within the game, whether a tense verbal conflict, or a bloody battle, creatures draw upon Aot, rolling dice to see how effectively they can increase their Acceleration during each round so they can use their abilities. Players, at minimum, roll 1d4 at the start of their turn to gain Acceleration. The point total is referred to as the Acceleration Points (AP). Abilities cost AP to use--some more than others. The more points a player possesses, the more things that player can do on a turn.

For example, John is playing Terron, a Dwarf Battle Breaker and he and his party are on their way to deliver an important missive to a king, in the hopes of averting a war. On the journey, they are ambushed by a roving band of Goblins. Arrows and spears fly at them, a few flying true, causing some of Terron's companions to become injured. Five Goblins pour into the road, swords drawn, running to attack under the cover of their ranged allies.

Combat has begun. John and his party each roll 1d4 (their AP Roll), signifying the beginning of a combat Round. John rolls 4.

Each player and creature now takes turns, in order, based upon their Evasion score + any modifiers. High Evasion is an indicator of reaction time, and so it is used to determine turn order during combat Encounters.

A couple of Terron's party members split off and move into the forest to take care of the ranged attackers. The sounds of their clanging attacks ring out. Terron steps forward, into the midst of the swarm of goblins. He shouts at them, (John uses the Taunt ability, which costs 0 AP and can be used once per turn), which causes three of them to be pulled toward him by an unseen force due to his Lectrus Stone (your Taunt and Beckon now also electromagnetically pull affected enemies to your location unless the pull is resisted by an affected creature).

Now, with his character in close, John chooses to spend 1 AP to use his Rage ability (Gain +5 to hit. You take double damage from all sources until your next turn. Limit: 1 use per round), and then activates his Primal Crush ability by spending 2 AP (Dueling(Strength vs Strength): Targets you hit with your next attack are knocked down.).

Finally, he spends his last AP to use his Whirl attack. He makes his attacks against each enemy by rolling a d20 for each. Each of his rolls exceed their passive Evasion, so the Game Master performs an Evasion Roll for each. One of the three manages to evade the attack, but the other two are hit, taking damage.

Because Terron's attack is under the effects of Primal Crush, the Goblins must roll, adding their Strength modifier to the roll, against John's roll, adding his Strength modifier (see Dueling on pg ###). Both Goblins are puny and fail to win the rolls, so both of them are Knocked Down (when knocked down, any attack a creature makes receives -5 to hit and any attacks made against it gain +5 to hit, and it must spend 1 AP to get back up.)

AP that is not used on a turn carries over to the next turn. It's as if the character began his next action on this turn, and completes it on the next.

Combat

Wraven and his companions are tired from a long day's journey on their way to a nearby city, where they hope to catch a ship that will take them to the Island of Eolonis on their campaign to secure a valuable wizard who lives there as an ally. Tonight, however, the group is merely looking for a place they can rest. Just before the last light of the day was held aloft by less than a quarter hour's time, Ignis the Ranger, spotted some ancient stone ruins, nestled in the jungle, nearly consumed by the foliage. The group stops here to make camp, under what was once a throne room in a crumbling castle. Just as they manage to start a fire, anticipating a fine meal made from the rabbits Ignis caught the day before, they hear the sounds of low growling from the shadows. Ignis shouts to douse the fire, Leyla kicks dirt over it until it goes out while the others choose defensible spots. In the dim light, Leyla picks up her scepter and casts Salvific Shield on each of her teammates. Suddenly, from the shadows, terrifying creatures leap out and begin attacking Wraven, who was standing, crouched behind a fallen stone, and Ignis, who stood silently by a large, gnarled tree root encroaching into the room. The team flies into action, beginning combat.

Combat can occur unexpectedly, or as a planned encounter. Each player and creature in the combat makes choices and a scene unfolds. The GM describes the action as it happens, with the players adding their own flourishes to describe their own actions. However, the first order of business, when a combat encounter is occurring, is establishing turn order.

Turn order is established by using each player and creature's passive evasion rating. Those with the highest evasion go first, and those with the lowest go last. Each round begins with the highest evasion individual and ends when the last player or creature takes its turn.

Here are the steps of combat:

At the beginning of the turn, that individual rolls for their AP. For most players, this will always be at least 1d4, unless that player is incapacitated.
With the AP available to that individual, they may utilize their AP to take any action, which includes the following ways:

Move up to their Movement, doubling AP required each time
Attack, doubling AP required each time
Use Abilities
Draw a weapon (dropping a weapon requires no AP)
Acceleration Stacking
Store their AP

Unless otherwise specified, all players start out with 25 feet of movement at an initial cost of 1 AP, costing double each time movement is used. See Movement under Acceleration Stacking.
When attacking, the player or creature will generally roll a d20 and add any modifiers (Roll to hit). Acceleration Stacking is common during attacks.
The defender is hit by an attack if it exceeds the defender's passive evasion, unless the defender wishes to spend stored AP to make an Evasion Roll.
If the defender is making an Evasion Roll, they roll a d20 and add any modifiers. Acceleration Stacking for Evasion can be done for this roll as well. The attacker's roll plus modifiers must be higher than the defender's Evasion Roll plus modifiers, or it doesn't hit.
If playing with individual armor rules and an attack hits, roll a d20 to see what piece of armor takes damage (Affected Armor). Feel free to be as detailed as you like with assigning damage. See section on Armor.
If the attack or ability hits, it will explain its Damage, Damage Type, and effects.

Important Information:

Abilities may be used only on your turn unless they are identified as Instant.
Instant Abilities may be used at any time and resolve with the effect of the last ability used first, followed in this order until the first-applied instant ability effect is resolved.
Physical Damage is dealt to Armor first, and Health only after Armor Hit Points are gone.
Magical Damage is dealt to Health and ignores armor, unless armor specifies otherwise.
Armor does not heal.
Something small, like consuming a healing potion, does not require AP. It is up to the GM's discretion on what to allow for minor actions.

Acceleration Stacking

When a creature expends Acceleration, it is slowing down time and increasing the speed at which it thinks and acts. This results in intense, dramatic, and mind bending moments of engagement. Whether making an important attack, or expending innate power to evade a particularly nasty attack, creatures who stack acceleration usually shift the tide of battle.

Attacks

Sheila, a level 5 Necromancer, possesses 5 Acceleration at the beginning of her turn. She gains 2d4 Acceleration from her standard 1d4 roll, and an active Unholy Decay on her Werewolf enemy. After rolling, she gains 5 additional Acceleration, putting her at 10.

She attacks with her Hungering Blade, which has +4 to hit. The basic damage of this attack, if it hits, is 1 multiplied by her Damage Modifier, which in this case is 50, plus an additional 1 multiplied by her Damage Modifier as Necrotic Damage because her foe is injured. That is 100 Damage with +4 to hit.

She could attempt to hit normally, adding +4 to hit and dealing her 100 damage. However, she decides that she'd like to increase her chances of hitting and would like to deal more damage as well, so she decides to perform something called Acceleration Stacking.

Instead of spending just 1 Acceleration to make the attack, she spends 5. The first point activates the ability, but the next four do something special. For each point of additional Acceleration spent, she modifies her chance to hit and her damage.

Hit Acceleration Stacking

To begin with, for each additional point of Acceleration spent, Sheila will add to her chance to hit. Upon spending one additional point Sheila can apply an added +1 to her chance to hit, bringing her attack's chance to +5. However, her second spent point increases that bonus to +2. The third point spent changes the bonus to +4. Finally, the fourth additional point spent increases the bonus to +8.

You might notice the pattern: the increases to the bonus compound. If, Sheila had spent 6 Acceleration, for example, her final bonus to hit would be +16.

This is highly useful when, in a combat encounter, it really matters that you land an ability.

Damage Acceleration Stacking

Similar to Hit Stacking, she will also automatically increase the damage of her attack since she is Acceleration Stacking on it--for each Acceleration Point spent, her blade moves faster and the magic works faster, and will deal more damage when it hits. Each additional point beyond the first adds additional damage.

So, in our example, the first additional point adds half the damage of the initial attack: 50. The second additional point of Acceleration spent adds half the damage of the stack before it: 25. The third point adds 12 (25 divided in half, rounded down). However, this is where the rule changes (in this example), because the lowest stacking damage value cannot be less than 10. So, the fourth point adds 10 damage.

If there were a fifth point spent, it would add another 10. So, the total damage for 4 additional AP spent in this example would be 100 (initial attack) + 50 (1st stack) + 25 (2nd stack) + 12 (3rd stack) + 10 (4th stack), which equals 197 damage.

Now, when Sheila makes her attack, she will add +8 to hit, and, if it is a successful hit, she will deal 197 Damage.

Evades

Marz, a Level 10 Shadow Shot, is in the midst of a battle when a Mechanin foe decides to attack him. The Mechanin is attacking with an Acceleration-empowered knife throw and rolls a total of 20 to hit. Marz pays 1 AP in an attempt to Evade. He already has +5 to Evasion, so when he rolls a d20, he gains that +5 to his attempt to evade that attack, but if he has banked AP and wants to ensure he's not hit, he can gain an edge by stacking evasion.

Stacking for evasion works exactly like stacking for hit. Marz decides to spend 1AP to Evade and 4 additional AP, which he has banked, giving him +8 on top of his natural +5. When he makes his Evasion Roll, he rolls 11, but after adding his bonuses, he manages a 24 to evade. Impressive. Unless his attacker is somehow hitting for substantially higher, he will dodge the attack.

Movement

Lyzex, a Level 5 Fuse Warrior, is moving and attacking multiple enemies on a battlefield when she sees a giant stone pillar tipping toward her. The distance she'll need to cover to get out of its way is approximately 45 feet, but her maximum movement is 25. She can use up her stored AP to enhance her speed by stacking acceleration, gaining half speed each stack, rounded down so it's divisible by 5, but never less than five feet of additional movement speed.

So in this case, she spends 1 AP to move 25 feet, another AP to gain 10 feet (35), plus 2 more AP to gain the additional 10 feet she needs (45) to avoid being crushed.

Terms and Definitions

Acceleration, Acceleration Points (AP)

Acceleration Points are gained at the beginning of each turn or through various other methods during combat. These points are then spent on attacks and abilities. All creatures have an Acceleration Point Maximum (AP Max), which can be modified, but the creature cannot hold more AP than their AP Max.

At the beginning of each turn in combat, a participant rolls their AP die or dice and gains that many Acceleration Points. All players start out with 1d4.

Outside of combat, a player may roll, gain, and store Acceleration Points. This is useful when a player wants to use an ability outside of combat. A player may roll 1d4 per 6 seconds of time that passes. Alternatively, a player may roll 1d20, with a minimum of 5 (e.g. if you roll 1-4, you still gain 5), per 30 second period.

If there is a momentary break in combat, players may accumulate Acceleration Points to use in preparation for the next combat. For instance, if there is a gap of 30 seconds between combats, a player may roll 5d4 or 1d20 (with a minimum of 5) and gain that many Acceleration Points to use at the beginning of the next combat.

A player may not accumulate more than 20 AP at a time unless some effect or ability allows it to go higher.

Armor

A player may don armor to increase the amount of damage he or she can take. In the event that a player is struck by a Physical Damage attack, armor health points are removed before health is affected. Armor does not regenerate. Once it reaches 0 hit points, it is broken and can no longer prevent damage. The player may repair it--it is at the GM's discretion as to how and at what cost.

You may play with the advanced armor rules if you desire.

Advanced Armor Rules

To play with advanced armor rules, on an attack, roll a d20 to see what piece of armor takes damage. If a defender has a shield, the defender may use 1 AP as a reaction and choose for the damage to hit the shield instead. To determine Affected Armor:

After a hit would land, roll to determine where it lands on an armored target.

Roll of a 20 is a Head or Helm hit.
Roll of 9 to 19 is a Shoulder/Arm hit.
Roll of 3 to 8 is an Torso hit.
Roll of 1 or 2 is a Lower Legs hit.

Armor of all different types have ratings. Players may choose to mix and match. To begin with, here is a breakdown of basic Medium Armor Ratings (the average):

Head or Helm Armor hit points: 10
Shoulder/Arm Armor hit points: 40
Torso Armor hit points: 40
Legs Armor hit points: 20

Total basic Medium Armor hit points: 110

A basic Shield has 50 Armor hit points.

A basic Buckler has 25 hit points.

Armor Types

Light armor (cloth) is 1/2 (50%) as effective as Medium armor. Full, basic light armor adds 55 Armor hit points.

Medium armor (leather and hides). Full, basic medium armor adds 110 hit points.

Heavy armor (metal plate) is twice (200%) as effective as Medium armor, so full heavy armor adds 220 hit points.

Evasion Effects

Armor affects evasion in the following ways:

Full Light armor adds +1 to evasion.

Full Medium armor has no effect on evasion.

Any Heavy armor worn by a player adds -2 to evasion regardless of whether it's a full set or not.

Holding a Shield adds -1 to evasion.

Magical effects may also modify Armor Ratings or Evasion Ratings.

Armor Quality

Armor quality comes in many forms, usually defined by the armor's description when it's gained. An example piece of armor may be something like a rare, adamantine helm, which comes with 300 armor hit points. As players explore and advance in level, the Game Master will likely award the players with increasingly advanced weapons and armor like this, keeping pace with character advancement.

Critical Successes and Failures

A player can gain a critical success by rolling the highest possible roll on a d20 or by beating a target by 10 or more. Similarly, The most common Criticals occur during a roll to hit or heal. Usually, on a successful, natural 20, a player doubles the effect (damage, healing or other). This is at the GM's discretion.

Damage

There are many kinds of Damage in the game, including Lightning Damage, Force Damage, Necrotic Damage, and multiple weapon damage types. This is not an exhaustive list, but it should be noted that some enemies may be resistant or immune to certain types of damage. When an enemy is resistant or immune, its description will tell you and will explain how it affects certain types of damage.

Damage Types (not exhaustive) Broken Into Physical and Magical

Physical

- Blade Damage
- Blunt Damage
- Piercing Damage
- Force Damage
- Burning Damage
- Freezing Damage
- Lightning Damage

Magical

- Balefire Damage
- Cognitive Damage
- Divine Damage
- Emotive Damage
- Faerie Fire Damage
- Necrotic Damage
- Negative Damage
- Psychic Damage
- Soul Damage

Damage Multiplier (DM)

This is the damage multiplier of a character, used to determine a character's damage output.

Dying State

A character is in the Dying State if their hitpoints have been reduced to 0. While in this state, the player rolls a d20 at the beginning of their turn. If they roll 10 or above, they gain 1 Health, lose all AP, and stabilize. However, if they roll below 10, they gain 1 point of Dying. If the character reaches 3 points of Dying, they are dead. If a character

Encounter

Encounters are interactions, events, or challenges within the game. Often a situation becomes an Encounter when players are faced with a challenge or a turning point in the narrative. Sometimes, the players find themselves in an Encounter when, while on a secret mission, they happen upon a group of travelers curious about where they're headed and why, requiring them to attempt a deception. Other times, the players might find themselves in the midst of an ambush, during which they must fight enemies to survive.

Evasion

A rating that classes and enemies have that determines how well they avoid being hit and how quickly they can respond in intense situations. Evasion is also the value baseline at which a Hit misses. If a Hit would exceed the passive Evasion rating of a defneder, that player can spend AP to make an Active Evasion roll.

For instance, a character with a passive evasion of 15 cannot be hit unless a foe rolls greater than 15 on an attack. But, if the hit exceeds the player character's passive evasion, then the player may choose to spend AP to roll for Evasion. If a player chooses to Evade this way, that player makes an Evasion Roll. Acceleration Stacking can also be used when making an Evasion Roll. If a defender manages to Evade, no damage is dealt and no effect that would be triggered by the hit is triggered.

Health

Health represents the collective well-being of your character. If Health is reduced to 0, a character is in the Dying state. Health is lost when damage is dealt to a creature or character that is not protected by armor, shielding, or some other damage-prevention element. Health can be regained via healing and regenerates naturally when outside combat, in a resting state, by 1, multiplied by your Spirit, Health per minute.

Hit

A Hit occurs when an attacker's roll beats the defender's passive Evasion and/or the defender's Evasion Roll. An attacker beats the Evasion Roll with a roll, plus modifiers, that is greater than the defender's roll, plus modifiers.

Modifiers

Abilities, attacks, damage, and more have basic values given them. However, these can all be changed by adding to or subtracting from it, and this affects outcomes in the game. These changes are called Modifiers. For instance, if an Attack says +5 to Hit, that means that when the attacker rolls a d20, they add 5 to their roll.

Multipliers

1× or 2× etc. This implies that what follows should be multiplied by 1 or 2, respectively.

1×DM: 10 multiplied by Damage Multiplier

1×SM: 10 multiplied by Spirit Multiplier

Round

A Round is about 6 seconds. There are 10 rounds in a minute.

Spirit Multiplier (SM)

This is the healing multiplier of a character, used to determine a character's healing output.

Surprise Round

Surprise Rounds occur when one creature or group manages to make an attack before being noticed by their adversaries. Those being attacked are hit if the attack roll to hit exceeds their Passive Evasion. During a Surprise Round, the surprised defender cannot make an Evasion Roll unless otherwise specified.

Willpower

You may spend 1 Willpower and reroll any one of your own die rolls, but only immediately following the roll you wish to replace. Willpower can also be used and gained by special abilities in the game.

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