Roleplay as a god (homebrew system, PEACH)

[Rephath]

I'm designing a new RPG. I need feedback and would be willing to trade feedback on my game for feedback on a game you have created. If you have such an offer, let me know.

(Full rules can be found at: http://archons.wikia.com/wiki/Archons_Wiki )

Introduction
Archons is an RPG where you play as a godlike being telling the story of your followers and your people as you work together to build a city. As an archon, you gather connection, which represents your ability and willingness to work miracles. You will have a champion, a hero, who is your hand in the mortal realm. You may also gain followers, characters who also carry out non-miraculous actions on your behalf, and through which you can roleplay, or you may focus on your champion and have a single character representing your presence.
Quick rules for individuals combined with rules that handle scale well to deal with a camp of 20 people or a city of 10,000 allow this game to handle heroism and legends where personal actions have an epic scale.

What Is an Archon?
As an archon, you are a being of great power who shapes the world. You exist in a world beyond it, one that is only partially connected, and so your influence is limited.
You have a unique symbol that is the essence of all that you are. That symbol may be marked on anything. The more precisely it is drawn, and the larger it is drawn, the more effective it is and the broader your influence extends from that symbol. In game terms, assume that anywhere your followers have been extensively bears your symbol. Not only can you enact miracles near you symbols, you can be aware of anything going on near any of your symbols, though you are only aware of one thing at any given point in time.

The first thing you'll need as an archon is a concept. What are you the archon of? What are you good at? What aren't you good at? What's important to you? What do you stand for? What do you oppose? What are your symbols and favorite things?
Let's say we want to pattern your archon after Hades, Greek god of death and the underworld. That's a good high concept; we can do more later.

First, pick a name. We'll be as uncreative as possible and go with Hades.

You'll want to fill in some characteristics as you go. They're not crucial to gameplay, but they will help you flesh out your character. They are as follows:

Concept: You are an archon of __________.

Symbol: What your symbol looks like. Draw it if you can.

Domains: What natural forces you govern. You will likely pick several.

Given our concept, we already know we're playing Hades, an archon of the underworld. So that's our concept. We pick a cairn as a symbol. We associate the underworld with death, earth, dogs, money, guarding the dead, and fear, so we pick all of those as domains.

Next, aspects. Archons have 5 aspects, representing the spectrum of abilities they possess. These aspects are combat, stealth, charisma, labor, and lore. You get 45 aspect points to distribute among these. All aspects start at 0, and it costs 1 point to raise an aspect from 0 to 1, 2 points to raise that aspect from 1 to 2, 3 points to raise it from 2 to 3, and so on. You cannot save aspect points by skipping levels. If you want to go directly from 0 to a higher rating, consult the chart below to determine the final cost. Aspects cannot go above 6.

Ending Level Final Cost
1 1
2 3
3 6
4 10
5 15
6 21

Archons also get a power. One to start with, and possibly others as the archon develops.

Creating a Champion

A key part of your interactions within the world will be your champion. Champions are stronger than any mortal and have a number of abilities. Champions are legendary. Imagine the deeds done by Gilgamesh, Hercules, Son Goku, and demigods of any mythology. Your champion will likely go on to do many deeds such as these.

Like all of your followers, your champion rolls its skill plus your archon's aspect to perform any actions. So if your archon isn't very skilled in stealth a thief/assassin as a champion would not be particularly effective. Your champion should be the greatest follower of your archon, and so he will strive to carry out that archon's ideals, maybe with a few slight variations. In fact, all of your archon's followers will agree more or less with that archon's ideals, because that's why they're followers.

When building a champion, think big. She won't be a mercenary, she'll be the leader of an army. He won't be a merchant, he'll be the king of merchants, owning a merchant fleet and a guild. She won't be a petty crook, she'll be one of the greatest thieves and assassins that ever lived. Oh, the champion might not start out that way. But champions will become the heroes or villains of their time, their abilities far beyond what mortals are capable of. So if your plan is to accomplish small deeds on a very local scale, think bigger.

You'll want to come up with 3 deeds your character has done in the past. Maybe defeating a monster, winning a war, losing a war, spending a year at the top of a mountain in complete silence meditating on the virtue of power, or something else entirely. You'll also want to give your champion a goal, something material they strive to accomplish. You can work this out with your GM or come up with it on your own, but characters without a driving passion are boring.

Your champion gets 40 points to divide among skills, listed here. The rating of a skill determines how many points it costs. A champion of any race may raise its skills up to 5, or 6 if it is human. Other races get a different special ability as befits their nature. So a champion can spend 3 skill points to get melee at 3, or 5 to get it at 5, or only 2 to get it to 2. Consult the list of skills for more information.

Champions have a level equal to one tenth their total amount of skill points, rounded up, meaning they start at level 4. This level affects a few things, but for champions it allows them a number of gifts equal to their level.

Champion Benefits
Champions start with up to the archon's lore aspect in spells, which they must invest at least 1 skill point in each. Spells are bought up just like skills. Champions may teach any follower of the same archon those spells.
Furthermore, champions are given superhuman powers as a benefit of the archon they serve. These bonuses are based on the archon's aspects, and raising those aspects will raise the associated benefit to that champion.

Combat: The champion gets one point of extra health for each point of combat rating the archon possesses. Any time the champion takes damage, a point of health is expended. The champion cannot be injured until health is exhausted.

Stealth: The champion gets one point of shadow for each point of stealth rating the archon possesses. Champions can expend a point of shadow to stay concealed while performing actions that should cause them to lose concealment.

Charisma: The champion gets one point of attitude buffer for each point of charisma rating the archon possesses. Any time the champion takes social pressure, he or she can sacrifice a point of attitude buffer and ignore the social pressure.

Labor: The champion may carry one additional tools that it can carry for each point of labor rating the archon possesses. This only affects important tools; a champion may carry many more items that give no mechanical bonus.

Lore: The champion gets one point of vim for each point of lore rating the archon possesses. A champion may expend a point of vim to cast a spell he or she has already cast. Alternatively, a champion may use an additional enchanted item, but while that item is held in the champion's possession vim is permanently reduced by 1. So a champion with 5 vim who has 3 vim powering enchanted items only has 2 vim left over for spells.

[Rephath]

Archons have great power, but they do not always use to shape the world to their desires. This is for any of several reasons. Archons are beings of spirit, and the material world is difficult to interact with, especially if their interference is not wanted. If archons are constantly helping humans, then humanity will grow complacent instead of simply growing. Archons may not like their followers, and even more may not like those who are not followers. Archons also often have inhuman motivations.
Connection is a measure of how much you as an archon wish to and are able to miraculously interact with the world around you.

Miracles
Each of these is a miracle that you can spend three connection as an archon to perform, as a free action, any time you wish.

Twist Fate: Immediately after a roll on a standard action, you reroll all dice that did not grant a success.

Intervene: You as an archon miraculously intervene. Pick a skill that matches how you want your miraculous intervention to function, and roll twice the associated aspect plus your level. You can cast any spell any of your followers knows by rolling lore times two plus your level and spending an extra point of connection. You can intervene as a free action to perform a work action, but you do not get the bonus of your level added.

Manifest: You simply show up, and may take a number of actions equal to your level before leaving, and you may cast any of your champion's original spells. Your manifestation can take physical damage, can be injured, and cannot be healed. As an archon you are immune to social pressure; having lived for millenia you are too set in your ways to be swayed. If your physical form dies, you are no longer able to manifest that session, but you are otherwise unaffected. You roll your aspect times two to accomplish things, as if you had a skill equal to your aspect.

Smite: Roll Combat x2, and if you hit, the target is dead. This does not kill heroes or certain monsters at the GM's discretion, though it may injure them.

Bless: This miracle is unique in that its cost is variable. Spend connection less than or equal to your level, and grant bonus dice to an action equal to connection spent.

Unique Miracles
Every archon gets to choose one and only one of these miracles that they can do. Choose from the list below, or make one up on your own with the GM's approval.

Overrule: As a reigning archon you may spend 3 points of connection to immediately nullify the power another archon just used. No roll is needed.

Return: You may spend 3 connection to return a deceased follower of yours to life, at injured.

Summon Creature: This allows you to summon your creature a particular area. It remains there for an entire scene, or until it has performed a number of actions equal to your level. After it has finished its tasks, has taken enough damage to eliminate it, or has its attitude dropped to incensed, it leaves. This could mean it is teleporting away, running of dying temporarily, or something else. The creature is immortal and cannot be killed by normal means. An archon may only summon its creature once per session.

Summon Servitors: This allows you to summon a number of servitors to a particular area equal to your level. Each time they perform an action their mood drops by 1. When the mood of any servitor reaches negative, it leaves the area. This can be by disappearing in a puff of obsolescence, returning to the astral realm, or something else entirely. An archon may only summon its servitors once per session.

Entice: You may spend 3 points of connection to get a new follower with skill points equal to your charisma. This could represent a newcomer coming to know the archon better in a way that the newcomer realizes the greatness of said archon, the newcomer falling in love with a current follower of the archon, or a mind-control effect that forces obedience, or something else.

Empower: Restore all uses of a particular follower's spells.

Berserk: You can drive a follower of yours with berserk madness, granting a bonus less than or equal to your combat. This grants extra dice to all combat actions except medicine. The bonus is reduced by 1 each turn. So if you grant a bonus of 3, the follower gets +3 to combat actions on the first turn it's granted, +2 on the second, and +1 on the third. However, there is a penalty. A berserk follower must attack someone each turn, and if only allies remain and the berserker has rage remaining, he'll attack them.

Prophesy: Make a prophecy. The GM rates it, and it's worth between 1 and 4 points. The more open to interpretation it is, the better described, the less game-breaking, and the more fun it would add to the session, the higher the GM rates it. You may also talk with the GM at the beginning of the campaign to factor in his plans or have him add in details that hint at things to come. The prophecy adds its rating to any action that would help fulfill it for the remainder of the session.

Wisdom: You may spend a point of connection to ask the GM for advice, and she should give you the best option available to you at that point.

Trickery: You may retcon in a trick. After someone has done something you did not like, roll social plus stealth against the stealth plus perceive of the being that earned your wrath. If you roll higher, something they thought they succeeded at is retconnned as a trick that you pulled.

(insert example)

Heal: You may immediately restore two health to a character without need for a roll. Or you may revive a dying character to one health instantly.

Conceal: All your followers in a zone immediately gain concealment equal to your stealth for one turn, and this concealment decreases by 1 each turn.

Gifts
Champions and other followers may take the following gifts. Gifts with a cost of 2 count as 2 gifts. (List is incomplete)

Physical
2 Inhuman Strength: You are twice as strong as the strongest mortal. When you attack, do an extra point of damage for each 2 extra points you roll instead of 3. Additionally, your successes are considered to be of double value when determining how much you can lift or move, but not the precision with which you can move it.

2 Strenth of an Archon: (Requires inhuman strength) You are ten times as strong as the strongest mortal. When you attack, do an extra point of damage for each extra success you roll. Additionally, your successes are considered to be of triple value when determining how much you can lift or move, but not the precision with which you can move it.

1 Enhanced Speed: You run incredibly fast. When moving as a move action or sprinting as a standard action, move an extra zone.

1 Incredible Speed: (Requires Enhanced Speed) You run fast as the wind. When moving as a move action or sprinting as a standard action, move two extra zones.

1 Inhuman Speed: (Requires Incredible Speed) Blink and you're gone. When moving as a move action or sprinting as a standard action, move four extra zones.

1 Regeneration: You heal yourself. Add the regeneration skill under Combat at rank 1, though you can spend more skill points to upgrade it. You may roll combat plus regeneration as if it were the heal spell, and restore health accordingly.

1 Assassin: You may expend a point of shadow to roll stealth plus a combat skill to sneak attack someone. If you succeed, but do not kill the target, you lose concealment. You may also expend additional shadow before the attack. If it hits, the extra shadow you spent each increase damage dealt by 1.

1 Flight: You may fly, using the move skill to soar through the air, though not any faster than you can run.

1 Combat Resistance: Resist magic is a combat skill for you, not a lore skill.

1 Healthy: Your health is increased by 2.

1 Strong: You may carry 2 more items.

1 Unnatural Resilience: You can never take more than 1 damage from any attack. But pick a weakness, and you take double damage from that weakness. Good examples of weaknesses include fire or silver.

Mental
1 Discipline: Your attitude buffer is increased by 2.

1 Sneaky: You have 2 an additional shadow points.

1 Sharp Tongue: Like with damage in combat, for every 3 extra successes you cause, you cause an extra point of social pressure.

1 Mockery: In combat, you may, once per turn, make a social attack as a free action if you make a physical attack in the same turn. 1 Squad Leader: When you lead a squad it gets +1 to all rolls.


Magical
1 Well of Power: Your vim is increased by 2.

1 Innate Spell: You know an additional spell that does not count against the difficulty of learning spells, starting at 1 point.

1 Graceful Mage: Whenever you cast a spell on someone, friend or foe, they get +2 to their next action.

1 Baleful Mage: Whenever you cast a spell on someone, friend or foe, they get -2 to their next action.

1 Powerful: When you cast a spell you can use points of vim to add an extra success to a spell for each point of vim, if spent beforehand.

[Rephath]

Basic Rules

To do something as an player, you'll usually do things through a follower of your archon, often your champion. By default, this means you roll a number of dice equal to the follower's relevant skill plus your rating in the associated aspect, plus any modifying factors. Your aspect represents any of several things in this area. It can represent your supernatural influence in a subtle way, guiding and helping your follower without necessarily calling in a major miracle. It also represents the fact that you tend to attract followers who fit more with your aspects; archons with low combat scores won't usually attract the strongest warriors. It also represents your ideals that followers will typically carry out. So a follower who is unwise and who follows an archon with high lore will study tomes and magic to learn more, in keeping with the beliefs of the archon. Finally, it can represent the priorities and guidance you give followers. Usually, it's a combination of all of these, representing the basic proficiency your followers have available to them to accomplish tasks.
When rolling aspect plus skill plus modifiers in dice, you'll count up the number of 5's and 6's you get. These are your successes. Successes determine how well you did.

Basic: An untrained commoner could accomplish that.
Skilled: A trained commoner could easily accomplish that.
Impressive: Notable success in something few people could do.
Masterful: A master of the craft could accomplish that.
Heroic: Impressive and near the limits of human potential.
Legendary: People will speak of this for ages.
Like an Archon: No human has ever done such before.

There are a number of types of actions a follower can perform (or an archon with a miracle)
Act: Successes determine how well the character does. Many skills have specific outcomes based on successes.

Overcome: The GM sets a difficulty, and if the character gets enough successes the action passes. Extra successes add flair.

Attack: The character rolls a damaging skill to deal damage. See combat for more information.

Social Attack: Same as attack, but deals social pressure. See charisma for more information.

Defend: The character resists an attack, interference action, block, or other action. You can defend as often as you want.

Block: The character rolls to prevent another character or group of characters from doing something. The block lasts one turn. Once one character rolls higher, the block is broken, but no character may perform an action that is blocked if they can't beat the block's roll. Blocking is a standard action.

Support: Roll dice and count up successes. An ally gets that as a bonus dice to the next action that ally can take that the support action would have helped. No one may benefit from more than one support action at a time, although the supporter can herself benefit from a support action to help her support someone else.

Interfere: Roll dice against the opponent's defense. If you roll higher, subtract your successes from your opponent's, then double them. Your opponent takes that as a penalty to its next action that the interference action would inhibit.

Skills

As an archon, you have followers who have skills. With your support and their talent, you can accomplish great things. There are 5 categories, each of which links to a more detailed description of its skills.

Combat
Combat deals with fighting and physical fitness.
Melee: This is used to attack someone in the same zone as you.

Ranged: This is used to attack someone in a nearby zone, but it cannot be used to attack someone in the same zone. Even point-blank shots are covered by melee, since they involve avoiding enemy attacks and quick movements more than focus and accuracy.

Defense: This is used to not get hit by a physical attack.

Move: This is used to move quickly from one zone to another and avoid obstacles. It includes running, jumping, climbing, swimming, and diving.

Medicine: This is used to treat illnesses and cure wounds. It can revive a downed target if applied before the target's next turn.

Destroy: This is used to smash things, whether that's breaking an enemy's weapon or bringing down an entire building.

Toughness: This is used to determine how much punishment the character can take and how strong the character is.

Stealth
Stealth deals with the covert side of life, doing things while not being noticing, or noticing things that need noticing.
Tracking: This is used to track prey across terrain. Unless the prey is difficult to kill, this is also a hunting roll. Ranged rolls are sometimes required to hit prey. Sometimes tracking may end up with you coming across prey strong enough to put up a significant fight, in which case combat is called for.

Trapping: This is used to place traps for people and prey, and to construct simple snares for animals. Making sturdier traps for enemy intruders would require a crafting skill.

Skulk: This is used to move about unseen, whether that's because you blend in with the environment or blend in with a crowd depends on the situation.

Perceive: This is used to notice important details and catch them before it's too late. It's used to see past camouflage, notice the actions of skulking individuals, spot traps, and so on.

Steal: This is used to take things without people notice, whether that's swiping, shoplifting, pick pocketing, or other such things. It's opposed by perceive.

Defeat Security: This is used to take to pick locks, disable traps, and otherwise get around gadgets designed to keep you out of places you want in.

Initiative: This is used for this follower to move first.

Charisma
Charisma deals in social skills, affecting people's thoughts and moods. (I need to cut and combine some skills.)
Deceive: This is used to trick, deceive, or con someone. Deceiving by word is opposed by empathy. Deceit as camouflage, ventriloquism, or disguise is opposed by perceive.

Empathy: This is used to understand people, and a major use is to get a read on individual's personalities and why they do what they do. Empathy is also used to raise others' spirits and show good manners, kindness, and care.

Negotiate: This is used to strike bargains. It can only be used when something is being offered, even if that's your personal gratitude.

Intimidate: This is used to threaten harm to the individual, whether physical, mental, or spiritual. Backed up with a threat, this can become very persuasive.

Leadership: This is used to inspire followers and protect them from anyone but you influencing them. It can be used to defend followers against social pressure.

Preach: This is used to spout religious teaching and gain followers.

Determination: This is used to resist all social skills except deceive.

Perform: This is used to play music, dance, and playact, as well as for oratory and other public demonstrations.

Labor
Crafting covers turning raw materials into finished products. The skills associate with particular raw materials.
Create Tool: This is used to create weapons, armor, tools, and helpful gadgets.

Build Structure: This is used to build entire zones, like rooms, buildings, ships, and the like.

Create Amenity: This is used to improve a building or zone with bonuses to certain actions or penalties to others.

Develop: This is used to create developments, giving your city infrastructure.

Gather: This is used to harvest, mine, or otherwise acquire raw materials such as food, stone, wood, and so on.

Stock: This determines the quantity and quality of items you have with you. Your house will likely have an amenity such as storage space that grants you a bonus to this. You can roll stock to declare you have an item with you, reducing the need to list everything on your character beforehand. The difficulty of the stock roll is determined by the odds you would have that item with you. This is 1 for any item you would almost assuredly have on you. Failing this means you lost or forgot the item.


Mercantile: This is used to engage in trade and other money-making ventures, turning small amounts of money into bigger amounts of money.

Lore
Lore is used for arcane research, but also for channeling magic. As your followers learn spells, you'll roll lore plus the character's rating with the spell.
Research: This is used to read through tomes, translate ancient or modern languages, and otherwise pursue information. It also determines how much a follower knows about a subject.

Enlightenment: This is used for a follower to unlock secrets of divine knowledge, gaining new magical abilties.

Resist Magic: This is used to avoid the effects of detrimental spells.

Extended Skill Descriptions
Combat
Standard Combat
In combat, the beings with the highest stealth plus initiative move first. Each character may take one standard action, one move action, and one free action. The move action is moving one zone. The free action can be just about anything simple enough not to need to roll for effect, like speaking a short phrase or switching weapons. The standard action is anything complicated enough to require a roll, like making an attack, casting a spell, using a social skill, do a support or interference action, or do anything else similar.
To attack with melee, roll melee against the target's defense. If you roll higher, you inflict a point of damage to the enemy. If you succeed by 4, you inflict 2 points of damage. You inflict an additional point of damage for each additional 3 points you beat the opponent's defense by.

Most enemies as well as your own followers start at healthy and are injured if they take a point of damage. An injured being is at -2 to all rolls. If an injured being takes further damage, it dies. Champions use up health before they get injured, shrugging off wounds or expending vast amounts of stamina to avoid them in the first place. Certain monsters and other beings have extra health as well.

For a ranged attack, do the same, except your character must be equal to or greater than the number of zones away your target is. Magical attacks work the same as ranged ones, for the most part. They all have their idiosyncrasies.

Move can be used to sprint/fly/jump/swim a number of spaces equal to successes rolled.

Medicine may be used to restore one point of health, make an injured person healthy, or restore a dying person to injured. It takes one success to heal you the first time, two the second, three the third, and so on until you accumulate so many injuries you cannot be healed. This resets each year. Magical healing has a separate counter for healing. Medicine may be used for other things than healing wounds, which does not increase the number of times you have received healing this year. This might include healing poison, curing disease, applying stimulants, and so on. Medicine uses herbs and concoctions with supernatural healing effects, as well as wisdom and science.

Destroy is commonly used for smashing inanimate objects, dealing much more damage to sturdy things that cannot resist well.

Toughness is a measure of size, strength, fortitude, and health. It covers anything from resisting poison and alcohol, how much you can lift, how much you can eat, how big your belches are, and more.


Stealth
Skirmishers: Move = 4
These light infantry specialize in getting to ideal locations quickly and holding them.

Skirmishers get double bonus from the terrain they are on, while halving half the move penalty rounded down. Fortifications are the exception, and act the same for skirmishers as any other unit.


Charisma
Command Unit: Move = 3
This unit is composed of the commanding officers of the army plus musicians and other signalers, coordinating forces and making tactical decisions.

Command units make melee attacks. All units adjacent to the command unit get +2 dice, though this does not count against disbandment. No unit may benefit from the leadership bonus of two command units, and command units may not benefit from a leadership bonus.

Creature Tamers: Move =3 Creature tamers manage lions, tigers, bears, wolves, war elephants, and possibly even more horrible things such as dragons or night creepers. They have the skills to not only control beasts but also strike fear in the hearts of men.

Creature tamers can make a melee attack. Alternatively, they can make a ranged attack of intimidation that reduces enemy strength not by killing but by frightening enemy troops into retreating. The intimidation must attack one space away. Intimidation ignores cover bonuses but gets no other mechanical bonus, though it is very different from a roleplaying perspective.


Labor
Sledgers: Move = 3
Strong brutes carrying sledgehammers, war hammers, picks, and other destructive implements, sledgers are imposing and their heavy weaponry is quite useful. They make short work of walls, undermining them or just breaking the rocks to pieces and pulling them apart.

Sledgers do double damage to defenses and ignore the defensive bonuses of lineholders. They make melee attacks.

Seige Engines: Move = 2

Catapults, scorpions, mangonels, trebuchets, and other massive projectile hurlers. They destroy everything in their path: enemies, fortifications, allies.

These make ranged attacks as archers, but 2 or 3 spaces away, and they do not damage allies on a 1. Instead, any hits deal damage to all units on a square, friend or foe. They can either damage people on a fortification, or do double damage to defenses, but not both.


Lore
Acolytes: Move = 3
Acolytes gather around a champion to build up power for a massive ritual to attack the enemy, calling down lightning or conjuring up a volcano out of the earth or simply flooding an area with raw magical energy.

Acolytes do ranged attacks as archers, but do not hit ally units. As untrained as they are in the ways of phsysical combat, however, they do not get a counterattack.

Priests: Move = 3

Priests are spiritual leaders and healers, able to channel divine energy into miraculous healing.

Priests may not attack nor may they counterattack. They may heal as medics do for adjacent units or units up to 2 spaces away.
Stealth
Stealth actions deal with noticing important details while not being noticed. An important part of stealth actions is concealment. You roll stealth + skulk to gain concealment, and you may perform any stealth action without losing concealment. Performing any other action immediately loses you concealment. Champions may expend a shadow point before a roll while concealed. If they succeed on that roll, they maintain concealment. This is useful for assassinating someone, sabotaging, throwing your voice, or casting spells without being noticed.

While concealed, you may perform any stealth action and not lose concealment, unless you fail. You may also use a few other skills from other categories while concealed, such as move or empathy, without losing concealment. However, as a general rule, using a skill from another category means you lose concealment. All spells make you lose concealment unless they specifically state otherwise.

Tracking
Tracking works as an opposed roll. If your tracking roll is higher than the target's skulk or tracking roll, you can track the target through wilderness. Tracking a target through a city is normally not possible.
Tracking also covers the hunting of prey, and unless the prey cannot fight back a tracking roll results in its death. Roll tracking as a work action to get food equal to successes rolled. You may chose to substitute a unit or two of food for hide, bone, or something similar.

Trapping
Trapping works like an attack roll that is made ahead of time. Roll trapping to lay down a number of traps in an hour equal to your skill with trapping (or one trap in two hours if you are untrained in trapping). Their rating is equal to successes rolled. The target will roll perceive against the rating of the trap, and if it does not roll higher it is either immobilized for a number of turns equal to the difference in successes (minimum 1) or damaged depending on how the trap was constructed. Treat that as an attack roll for damage purposes. Immobilized enemies take a -3 to attack and may not leave the vicinity of the trap until they free themselves.
Trapping as a work action functions identically to tracking.

Skulk
The basic skill of stealth, skulk grants concealment. Roll stealth + skulk when you choose to conceal yourself. The successes rolled are your concealment. An opposing character must roll stealth + perceive and get more successes to penetrate this concealment and notice your follower, and may then point you out and ruin your concealment for everyone (or not).

Perceive
The other essential skill of stealth, perceive is noticing important details with eyesight and other senses. It is also used for exploration, moving into new areas and seeing what riches and dangers are there. In general, when you roll perceive, you get a number of details about the surrounding area equal to successes rolled.
As a work action, roll explore to survey a new area or larger tract of land. Successes rolled equal resources you bring back, chosen by the GM, from this new area. You also get a number of facts equal to successes rolled about the area you explored.

Steal
If a follower can roll higher on a steal roll than the target's percieve (or other skill used to protect the item), then the item is stolen. On a tie, the theft occurs but is noticed. Otherwise, it is covert. Steal works in combat to relieve enemies of equipment.

Defeat Security
Locks, traps, doors, and more get in the way of scouts, thieves, and spies. But if they have defeat security as a primary skill, these measured don't get in their way for long. If the follower rolls higher on defeat security than the rating of the amenity or trap, then he overcomes it.

Initiative
When it comes to determining who moves first, it comes down to stealth plus initiative. In cases where 2 or 3 opponents are facing off, and who moves first is of utmost importance, initiative can be rolled with highest roll moving first.
Charisma
Charisma deals with social pressure and social conflict; people using words and body language to get what they want or help society flow more smoothly.
The key aspects of charisma skills are attitude and social pressure.

Attitude is how a character is feeling. It can be positive, negative, or neutral. Positive attitude means the character is feeling determined and strong, easily able to avoid manipulation or frustration. You would associate this with feelings of contentment, joy, peace, and determinate. Neutral means the character is reasonably satisfied, but cannot handle too much more frustration. This would be associated with feelings of apathy, resignation, ambivalence, and so on. Negative attitudes mean the character cannot take much more frustration and is at wits end. These indicate feelings of depression, rage, or other moods that mean the person is about to make a stupid decision.

Your non-champion followers will have an attitude determined by the satisfaction rating of the town they come from. NPC's usually have an attitude of positive, but there are many reasons why their attitude would be lessened initially.

Every time a social skill succeeds against a target, the target has social pressure to deal with. The target can comply with the social skill or reduce its attitude by 1 from the mental exhaustion of ignoring the request. For example, if a decieve roll succeeds against your follower, you follower can believe the lie or have its attitude lowered from positive to neutral or from neutral to negative. If the follower's attitude was already negative, if it refuses to comply with the social skill it has a mental breakdown and spends the rest of the scene in shock, crying, flying into a blind rage, passing out, or in some other way being useless to itself and its allies. At the beginning of the next scene its attitude bumps back up to negative. By the time you reduce an enemy's attitude to negative it usually complies with your request. For instance, an intimidate roll against an enemy in combat will remove it from the fight. Targets in a negative attitude can usually be convinced to kill themselves, join your side, switch religions, or more, just by one more success of a social skill against them. Their willpower is sapped.

In general, the lower an NPC's attitude is, the more likely it will comply with whatever you ask or request. As a player, it gives you some freedom in how your characters react to social skills, with the ability to say "no" when the dice tell you your opponent succeeded.

Deceive
Deceive is your lying skill, used firstly to convince people that what you say is the truth. This can mean being convincing when you actually are telling the truth, but it could also be when you're flat out lying as well. Deceit covers camouflage and disguise as well, plus hiding things and counterfeiting. It's a skill all figuring out what people expect and then presenting lies in accordance with that.
Modifiers for deceive are mainly how much the target wants to believe what you say and secondarily how good or scant the evidence you have to back up your claim.

Seeing through camouflage, disguise, or physical concealment requires a roll of perceive, not empathy, in most cases.

Empathy
Empathy is all about understanding those around you. Think of it as getting a sense of those around you. Perceive is for noticing physical details. Empathy is for spotting useful personality traits, seeing through lies, and staring into someone's soul to gauge the real individual. Roll empathy to pick up on a number of details about a person, usually equal to successes rolled. The longer you study the person, the more in depth information is revealed.
Empathy also acts as the social equivalent of medicine. Once per session any character may benefit from healing

Negotiate
This is the art of the bargain, be it getting a good price at the bazaar or a diplomatic peace treaty. For negotiation, something must be offered in exchange for something else. This could be goods for goods, favors for favors, personal gratitude for information, or something else entirely. The more advantageous the bargain is to the person you're proposing it to, the more likely it will conclude successfully.

Intimidate
Intimidate is the quickest and cheapest social skill, one that bypasses many of the social graces and often several laws to get its effect. In some instances it can land you in a heap of trouble. In others it allows you influence enemies who are beyond acts of kindness or negotiation. While most social skills take a penalty in combat, intimidate takes no such penalty. Its bonuses and penalties usually revolve around how likely the target is to fear what you are threatening, be if physical harm, shame, torture, or public humiliation.

Leadership
Leadership is the act of developing and inspiring those under your command. To use leadership on another character, that character has to respect your authority to some degree and do what you say more often than not.
If another character succeeds at using a social skill against a character that follows your leadership to influence that character to do something that works against your interests, you can roll charisma + leadership to overrule that and negate the social pressure caused. For example, if you ordered another follower not to let anyone into your tent no matter what, your follower can roll your charisma plus your champion's leadership to resist EVEN IF YOUR CHAMPION IS NOT THERE.

As a work action, leadership can grant extra skill points to the target equal to successes rolled, due to the leader developing the underling's skills. Champions cannot be led by non-champions though they can be led by archons.

Preach
Preach obviously covers religious teaching, proselytization, and religious speech in general. It is handy for converting random NPC's to follow you as an archon. It also covers knowledge of religion, specifically of your archon, but of religious matters in general.
DeterminationEdit
Determination is the ability to resist influence by others and continue on the path you set for yourself. It is used to resist all social skills except deceive, which turns your own determination against you. A determined character has strong willpower and is not easily swayed.

Perform
This is your basic public performance skill. For public speaking you pick what skill you're rolling, and roll it to determine how successful it is. For example, roll preach to speak to an individual. Then roll perform to spread the effect to a congregation. Successes determine how large of an audience can be affected as in the chart below:
Successes Crowd Size Affected
0 1 individual
1 5 individuals
2 25 individuals
3 125 individuals
4 600 individuals
5 3000 individuals
6 as many as can hear you
7 or more as many as can hear you and anyone they spread the message to
If you fail to reach a high enough perform roll, the crowd is unaffected by your social skill. You aren't able to play to the crowd or get your message across, or you're shouted down or get stage fright.
You can roll perform on its own for playing instruments, playacting, or other performance, with successes determining both how well you perform and how many people you affect.

Perform also covers artwork, and determines how many people can be affected by a piece of art you create.

As a work action, perform draws people to your town, granting progress to population equal to successes rolled.
Labor
Labor has the most mundane skills, but ones that you will find useful.

Create Tool
Create tool is used for people who create hammers, weapons, armor, fishing rods, and all manner of other tools to assist people in carrying out their duties.
This allows you to create things that characters carry around with them. When you make a tool, pick what the item does and then pick what skill it will add bonus dice for. A sword gives bonus dice for melee, a suit of armor gives bonus dice for defense, a hammer and tongs will create a tool that helps you forge other tools, and a sufficiently spooky outfit will give you a bonus to intimidate.

The next step is to determine the required materials. You can suggest materials to the GM, or she might suggest them to you. A bit of haggling is okay, but you're not going to make a full set of armor from one unit of metal, nor can you put twenty units of stone into making a set of earrings.


You roll your crafting plus the follower's create tool skill plus the value of the resources you invested in the tool. So if you forge a greatsword with 4 metal, have crafting of 3, and the follower making the sword has 6 points in crafting, you roll 13 dice. Count up all the successes.

Next you determine the value of the tool. Count up your successes and compare them against this chart to determine how many dice the tool grants to actions when used.

Successes Bonus
1 +1
3 +2
6 +3
10 +4
15 +5
21 +6

Yes, these numbers may look familiar. 21 sucesses is unlikely, but if several smiths collaborate on a full set of mythril armor, it just might be possible with a bit of divine intervention.

Let's say you rolled 13 dice to create that greatsword, and with a bit of luck you got 4 successes. You'll notice that only 3 of those do you any good. You could say you also created a +1 dagger while you were at it. Leftover points can be used to create additional items.

No character may benefit more than one tool for any particular job. If one follower uses several tools, only the highest bonus counts.

The create tool skill can be used as a standard support to create disposable items, stored until the follower needs it. So if you roll 3 successes to make some fire arrows, those can grant +3 to a roll if used in one turn, or +1 to 3 different rolls. Wooden shields are light and good for blocking right up until they break. Smoke bombs can hide a thief in an emergency. Glass weapons are fragile but hold a perfectly sharp edge. A bit of creativity can get you some bonuses stored up quickly, without needing a whole year for a work action. But this doesn't get you the permanent boosts that come in quite handy.

Tools allow characters to exceed their normal limits.

Build Structure
Build structure is used by masons, engineers, excavators, and other people who create structures. The most involved, structures usually use up your wood and stone, and they occupy an entire area. A structure could be a small building, a room, a ship, or something of the like. To create a structure, roll build structure and count up successes. This creates a building (or the like) with a rating determined by successes rolled, based on the following chart:

Successes
Bonus
1 +1
3 +2
6 +3
10 +4
15 +5
21 +6

You may have leftover successes. That's fine. Any successes you don't need add amenities to the building. So if you get 8 successes, you have a rating 3 structure. Mark down any leftover dice. They can be used later for upgrading the structure if you choose to do so.
The rating of the building determines the number of people that can take advantage of its amenities at one time. As well as the rating of any amenities in the building. Those will be discussed below. A workshop rating 3 can host 3 craftsmen taking advantage of rating 3 amenities.

Create Amenity
Craft amenity is used by various tradesmen to turn raw materials into furniture and equipment in a room. Roll create amenity to create a number of amenities for a building equal to successes rolled. Add resources for bonus dice. Amenities may be divided among multiple structures. No one may benefit from or take a penalty from more than one amenity at once.
Amenities can add extra dice to actions performed in or in relation to a structure, or provide a penalty. Consider an archery tower with the amenities height advantage, arrow slits, and warning beacon. Say the archery tower is rating 3. Anyone using that structure might use height advantage for a bonus to rolls to see something or hit with a ranged attack. The arrow slits would provide a penalty for attackers to hit someone in the structure. The warning beacon might add bonus dice to social rolls to warn people or rouse them to action. Any of these adds or subtracts 3 dice. There is no limit to the number of amenities that can be added to a structure except by common sense. Repeated work actions add more amenities.

Develop
Develop is the ability to build up infrastructure and create or improve a development . First, pick which development you wish to improve, or one that doesn't exist but you would like to. If you want one that is not on the list, talk to your GM. Roll develop along with any building materials you are adding for bonus dice and any other bonuses you might want to incorporate. You may use as many resources as you want. Successes rolled equal progress added to the development. Once progress equals or exceeds twice the next rating of the development, reduce progress by that amount and increase the development's rating by 1. No development can be increased more than 1 per year, regardless of factors.

As an example, say you are starting the mines development at 0 and want to increase that to 1. Your champion has 5 dice for the develop action. You'll need 2 progress to increase the development's rating by 1. You decide to add 4 wood resource as support beams for the mine. This gives you 9 dice. You get lucky and roll 7 successes, adding 7 progress to the mines. This is more than 2, so you immediately reduce progress to 5, and increase the mine's rating from 0 to 1. It'll take 5 progress to reach the next rating, so next year that will happen automatically.

Gather
Gather is relatively simple. As a work action, roll gather. You get resources equal to successes rolled, of whatever type you wish, except treasure. You can also use it as a standard action if, in your adventures, you come across an easy trove of resources that you can quickly gather. If those resources are not being gathered from the wild, but instead from a nearby locked chest, try steal instead.

Stock
This determines the quantity and quality of items you have with you. Your house will likely have an amenity such as storage space that grants you a bonus to this. You can roll stock to declare you have an item with you, reducing the need to list everything on your character beforehand. The difficulty of the stock roll is determined by the odds you would have that item with you. This is 1 for any item you would almost assuredly have on you. Failing this means you lost or forgot the item. 3 or more covers items you would possibly have on you. 5 is a good difficulty for things you are very unlikely to have on you. A sword would be difficulty 1 for a swordsman, difficulty 3 for a wizard, and difficulty 5 or higher for a pacifist.
Rolling for a more specific item, such as a sword with the symbol of a boar's head on it would increase the difficlty by a few points unless that is your character's symbol or there's another reason why you'd be more likely to have a sword with that symbol on it than without it. Cost is also a factor. A more valuable sword would be a harder roll than a basic one.

Mercantile
Mercantile is a skill used by merchants, masseuses, bartenders, and other people who provide services rather than goods. Mercantile is used in operating a profitable business. Mercantile requires you to risk your money for a chance at great profit. As a work action, you first choose how much money you expect to make. You tell the GM how much you wish to wager. Then you roll. If you roll equal to or higher than your wager, you get double your wager in additional treasure. If you roll lower than your wager, you lose the difference in treasure from failed business ventures.
Keep in mind that wager isn't double or nothing. You either gain double your wager or lose an amount of treasure up to your wager.
Lore
Lore deals a bit in knowledge and a lot in magic.

Research
Research is a basic knowledge skill that relates to how much you know about any given subject, be it astronomy, knowlege of nature, trivia, other languages, or anything else. This not only represents information you already know but your ability to dig through libraries and shrines to find the knowledge you seek.

You can roll research as a work action to make a discovery. A discovery adds a +1 technology bonus to a development. No development may get more than 1 technology bonus. This improves production and effectiveness of the development without requiring more population or making it harder to upgrade. To succed at this, you must roll higher than the number of technological discoveries the city is already benefitting from.

Enlightenment
Enlightenment is used to contemplate the divine and learn new magical abilities in the process. To learn a new magical ability, roll enlightenment as a work action. If the successes you roll are higher than the current number of spells the follower already possesses, that follower gains a new spell that the archon would teach at rating 1.
Champions start with a number of known spells equal to the archon's lore aspect, and those do not count against them for difficulty of learning new spells.

Resist Magic
Use this to resist spells. If your resist magic roll is higher, the opponent's spell has no effect. You do not resist beneficial spells unless you really want to.

Spells

While there are many spells listed, your champion only starts with a number equal to your lore, and can only learn so many others. Choose wisely. Also, while they come with a default description, all spells your archon teaches must be in keeping with your archon's nature. Feel free to change the trappings yet keep the effect the same where necessary.
Spells may only be used once per session unless noted otherwise. If you want to use a spell for a minor purpose, you may roll it without counting that as a use, but you halve successes rolled and round down. Champions can spend vim to reuse a spell already cast. Spells may be learned multiple times if you wish to use them frequently.

You roll lore plus the rating of the spell as if it were a skill, and you may use it for regular actions as you would for any skill if you so desire, though not to defend. For example, an exploding bolt spell that was an exploding ball of fire could also be used to harm a wooden building as the destroy skill would.

Bolt of Power: This is a magical attack that works like the ranged skill. There infinite variations on the trappings of this power, from raining hail on an enemy to shooting a bolt of smite to growing thorns to attack to levitating a rock as a project to a thousand others. It deals a number of points of damage equal to the amount you beat your opponent's roll by. Yes, this is incredibly lethal.

Disabling Bolt: This works the same as bolt of power, except it deals sleep, paralysis, or some other thing that, if it would otherwise kill your opponent, disables it for a turn instead.

Exploding Bolt: This works as a ranged attack, but it works as an attack on every target in the zone. You roll once and your enemies, allies, and anyone else in the zone rolls to resist individually. All whose rolls you do not beat are affected.

Heal: This works like medicine the combat skill, but it has a separate track. To succeed at the heal spell, you must roll as high as the number of times you have used it previously, but it does allow for multiple uses.

Teleport: This works like the move skill, except it ignores barriers.

Open Gateway: This takes a standard and move action to cast, but it opens a gateway from where you are to a sigil you marked out. You may only have one gateway sigil. What's the successes for?

Conjure: Make a list of items you can conjure, one item per point you have in this spell. Examples might be weapons, furniture, water, wood, gold, etc... Roll conjure as the create tool, gather, or stock skill to create from thin air the item you need in the instant you need it. When rolling as if it were stock, ignore any difficulty factors due to the item being something you would be unlikely to have on you at the moment. Conjure may not use resources to aid success.

Hand of Power: This hand allows you to move items in the same zone or one zone away as if it were a toughness roll for strength. It does this by creating a human-sized translucent hand of magical force that remains long enough to perform a standard action.

Shield: This conjures a dome of defensive energy to protect the target, often the caster herself, or someone in an adjacent zone. There is no roll for success on this, unless the target resists. The target defends by rolling dice equal to the caster's lore plus shield skill. If the attacker gets fewer successes, the attack does nothing and the shield stands. If the attacker rolls more, the shield breaks. Subtract the successes the shield roll from the attacker's roll and then the defender has to roll against the remaining successes. If the shield is not broken, it goes down at the end of a scene.

Control Spell: Roll this as a defensive action when someone else casts a spell into the same zone as you are in. If you beat the opponent's roll, you may seize the spell and have it attack someone else (or aid an ally if it was beneficial) at the successes the original caster rolled.

Herbalism: You may roll this spell as a work action to prepare a number of spells beforehand as potions. Potions can be any spell, whether it fits your archon's nature or not, and whether or not any of your followers know that spell already. You can throw a potion at an enemy, drink it, apply it as a salve, or anything else as makes sense. Basically, before each session you prepare spells as you see fit and then cast them.

Enchant: Treat this like the create tool skill, except it creates an enchantment that boosts how an item works. As a work action, you create an enchantment which is applied to an object. This could be a common item that had no mechanical advantage. It could also give an item a boost to what it already does, or a second function. The bonus stacks. Enchantments draw a small amount of spiritual energy from their owner, and therefore no one may have more than one enchanted item. The exception is champions, whose vim pool is reduced by one for every enchanted item they own after the first.

Bless: The target gets bonus dice to a type of action for a scene equal to successes rolled.

Curse: The target takes a penalty to a type of action for a scene equal to twice the difference in successes if this spell hits.

Invisibility: The target gains bonuses to performing actions stealthily and temporary points of shadow equal to successes rolled. At the end of a scene, invisibility ends, and the temporary shadow points are lost if not used.

Teleport: This spell works as either a standard action or a move action, moving the caster a number of zones away equal to successes rolled, and ignoring barriers.

Incapacitaing Bolt: If the target is hit with this spell it is frozen, ensared by webs, tangled by the grass, petrified, put in a sleeping field or somehow else prevented from taking any actions this turn. It automatically gets 1 and only 1 success on all defense rolls and is immune to social skills or mental effects.

Control Enemy: If this spell rolls higher than the target's level, the caster controls the target for one turn. The target is aware it is being controlled. This has the same range restrictions and benefits as a ranged attack.

Necromancy: The caster rolls this spell and if it is higher than the target's level the creature is resurrected and obeys the necromancer's orders. If the caster rolls half as high as the target's level, the being is revived but has free will.

Demoralize: Treat this spell as if it were a ranged attack, but dealing damage to attitude not health.

Shape Terrain: Create an amenity in the area whose rating is equal to successes rolled. It disappears at the end of the session.

Illusion: This spell creates an illusion, opposed by the target's stealth plus perceive roll. On a success, in combat the target loses its next turn. This spell may affect things in the same or an adjacent zone. Out of combat, it creates an illusion that lasts for a full minute. Illusion

Telepathy: This spell creates a mental network where people can think words, images, and sensations at each other or block them out. Telepathy can be ignored through some effort. It allows for easy, two-way communication without in-depth mind-reading. The telepathy spell allows for a scene of telepathic communcation among a number of targets equal to skill with the spell including the caster, and up to a number of zones away in every direction equal to successes rolled.

Flesh to Spirit: This spell makes you intangible for a number of turns equal to successes rolled. While intangible, you cannot cast magic or interact with the physical world other than looking at it or speaking. You are immune to damage from any non-magical source. Your ghostly spirit is mostly visible and you may pass through solid obstacles and ignore gravity.

Transform into Animal: The target of this spell is turned partially or completely into an animal. For the remainder of the scene, she gets a bonus to all rolls that the animal would be good at equal to successes rolled, but takes the same penalty to rolls the animal would not be good at. For example, if the caster rolls 3 successes to turn the target into a dog, the dog would get bonuses to move and perceive but penalties to ranged and create tool. Other skills would be affected as well.

It can be used on an ally in the same zone, but if cast on an enemy it needs to be done as a ranged attack. Animals have difficulty using tools. The successes rolled casting the spell also work as the successes that must be beaten by a perceive roll to identify the animal as being the original target. This spell cannot transform the target into a monster or unnatural animal, like a dragon or griffon.

Transform Being: This spell functions as bolt of power, except unless it deals enough damage to kill the target it does nothing. If it deals enough damage to kill the target, the target is transformed into an amount of resources equal to the successes rolled. Choose the resource type when you learn the spell. For example, turning the target into a cow might give you food resource while turning it to iron would give you metal.

Summon Creature: This spell calls forth your archon's creature to perform a number of actions for the summoner equal to successes rolled. It leaves when the actions are completed, or at the end of the scene, whichever comes first. Learning this spell requires the archon to have the summon creature power.

Summon Servitors: This spell calls forth a number of your archons servitors, each of which has an attitude of negative and so will perform one action before leaving. Learing this spell requires the archon to have the summon servitors power.

Commune with Dead: Use this spell to call up a local deceased person to answer your questions. The higher the roll, the more useful the spirit. One success pulls up a common ghost with very little useful information while six successes calls up a shade of ancient wisdom.

Shift Emotions:

[Rephath]

Warfare
Unit SizesEdit
The size of your units depends on the rating of your barracks development. The chart below lists unit sizes proportional to the rating of your barracks:
0 no real soldiers to speak of
1 individual
2 team
4 squad
8 squad
16 platoon
30 platoon
60 company
120 company
250 battalion
500 battalion
1,000 battalion
2,000 brigade
This setup gives you 3-6 units to deal with. Any champion can act as the leader of a unit, and so can other PC's as needed. If you only need 2 units, you can treat that unit as if its rating were one higher. If you need 7-12 units, treat them as if their rating were one lower.
Unit FightingEdit
A unit starts with strength equal to the base value relevant aspect of the archon leading it plus six. So a group of spearmen under the direction of a commander working for an archon of combat 5 has a total of 11 strength. Generally, it rolls its strength in dice to accomplish something. Let's say it is facing an enemy with combat 3, so strength of 9.
To attack, one unit rolls its strength and counts all 5's and 6's as hits. In melee combat, when one unit attacks another, reduces the enemy's strength by hits scored, and then the second attacks the first afterward with a counterattack, and then the fight ends. Ranged units do not counterattack. If a unit's strength is reduced to 0, it disperses due to casualties, broken equipment, but most of all broken spirit.

Let's say the two groups of spearmen fight. The Red spearmen have 11 strength, the Blues 9. Red wants to attack. First he checks rating comparison, but we'll assume they're the same rating so we ignore that. Red also checks hit numbers. With no bonuses that's 5 or 6. Red rolls and gets 1,1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, and 6. That's 4 hits, reducing Blue's strength by 4. Blue gets a counterattack, checks rating and hit numbers (same) and rolls its remaining strength of 5 to get 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. 2 hits. Red's strength is reduced 2.

However, there is one catch. If a unit is facing a unit one rating higher, it rolls 1 less die. If it is facing a unit of one rating lower it rolls one more die. Let's say the two units above fight. Red is rolling at strength-1 (10) while Blue is rolling at strength +1 (10 also). If the units differ by 2, they get +2 and -2 respectively. If they differ by 3 it increases to +4 and -4, and doubles for each additional increase in the difference, though at this point the fight is basically a given.

Also, any time a 6 is rolled against a unit in combat, roll a die on the side. If that secondary die also comes up 6, the commander of that unit takes a point of damage. There is no resisting. If the commander dies, the unit disperses.

Units of Warfare
Combat
Soldiers: Move = 3
This unit is the basic unit of any force, armed with swords, axes, shields, armor, and grim determination.

Soldiers make melee attacks and may make a counterattack against the enemy's counterattack when they initiate a regular attack.

Spearmen: Move = 3

Spearmen are excellent front line troops, their long spears hitting the enemy before the spearmen are themselves made vulnerable.

When spearmen get a counterattack, they make it before they are attacked, unless attacked by other spearmen.

Lineholders: Move = 2

Heavily armed and armored, lineholders slowly but surely press the enemy back,

These heavy infantry are difficult to kill and all enemies get -2 dice to hit them. They ignore the first hit from friendly archers but do not affect the dice pool of friendly archers who are hitting them with accidental fire.

Surgeons: Move =3

Surgeons restore life to the wounded and allow the injured to re-enter the fray. With a bit of magic and a lot of luck, they can even spare the dying. They are equipped with bodyguards, sworn defenders.

Surgeons may make a counterattack but not attack. They may also roll as if attacking a friendly unit in the same space and restore strength to the unit equal to successes rolled. They may not, however, increase a unit's strength above its normal maximum.


Archers: Move =3

Archers are the basic ranged unit of any army, pouring down deadly fire upon their opponents.

Archers make ranged attacks. They may not attack anyone on their same space, but they may attack any adjacent space or two spaces away. Archers can not make a ranged attack if there are enemies on the same space as them. If they fire on a space that has an allied unit engaged with an enemy on the same space, any 1's rolled inflict hits on the allies.

Hurlers: Move = 3

Armed with throwing axes, javelins, slings, and other such weaponry, hurlers are a versatile fighting force.

Hurlers may make a melee attack or a ranged attack on an adjacent space. Their ranged attacks function the same way archers' do except for distance.

Cavalry: Move = 6

Mounted on horses and occasionally other beasts, cavalry are the fastest units on the battlefield.

They make a melee attack as you would expect, and have double difficulty moving into difficult terrain.

Stealth
Skirmishers: Move = 4
These light infantry specialize in getting to ideal locations quickly and holding them.

Skirmishers get double bonus from the terrain they are on, while halving half the move penalty rounded down. Fortifications are the exception, and act the same for skirmishers as any other unit.

Charisma
Command Unit: Move = 3
This unit is composed of the commanding officers of the army plus musicians and other signalers, coordinating forces and making tactical decisions.

Command units make melee attacks. All units adjacent to the command unit get +2 dice, though this does not count against disbandment. No unit may benefit from the leadership bonus of two command units, and command units may not benefit from a leadership bonus.

Creature Tamers: Move =3 Creature tamers manage lions, tigers, bears, wolves, war elephants, and possibly even more horrible things such as dragons or night creepers. They have the skills to not only control beasts but also strike fear in the hearts of men.

Creature tamers can make a melee attack. Alternatively, they can make a ranged attack of intimidation that reduces enemy strength not by killing but by frightening enemy troops into retreating. The intimidation must attack one space away. Intimidation ignores cover bonuses but gets no other mechanical bonus, though it is very different from a roleplaying perspective.


Labor
Sledgers: Move = 3
Strong brutes carrying sledgehammers, war hammers, picks, and other destructive implements, sledgers are imposing and their heavy weaponry is quite useful. They make short work of walls, undermining them or just breaking the rocks to pieces and pulling them apart.

Sledgers do double damage to defenses and ignore the defensive bonuses of lineholders. They make melee attacks.

Seige Engines: Move = 2

Catapults, scorpions, mangonels, trebuchets, and other massive projectile hurlers. They destroy everything in their path: enemies, fortifications, allies.

These make ranged attacks as archers, but 2 or 3 spaces away, and they do not damage allies on a 1. Instead, any hits deal damage to all units on a square, friend or foe. They can either damage people on a fortification, or do double damage to defenses, but not both.


Lore
Acolytes: Move = 3
Acolytes gather around a champion to build up power for a massive ritual to attack the enemy, calling down lightning or conjuring up a volcano out of the earth or simply flooding an area with raw magical energy.

Acolytes do ranged attacks as archers, but do not hit ally units. As untrained as they are in the ways of phsysical combat, however, they do not get a counterattack.

Priests: Move = 3

Priests are spiritual leaders and healers, able to channel divine energy into miraculous healing.

Priests may not attack nor may they counterattack. They may heal as medics do for adjacent units or units up to 2 spaces away.

[Rephath]

Developments are the infrastructure of your civilization. As your camp advances to a town, and then a city, you'll see your developments blossom to reflect the prosperity of your people.
Each development has a rating, and an increase of 1 in the rating doubles the amount of infrastructure you have for a development. So raising your farms from 7 to 9 means your farms are producing 4 times as much food for your people. Developments include the buildings, tools, education, training, and housing needed to support the people who work there. Most people live adjacent to, above, or in their workplace.

Technological advancements, archon bonuses, and other advantages unlocked may add bonuses to a development's rating. The developments count at the higher rating when it is to your advantage, and the lower rating when that is to your advantage. For example, you get more tribute from a higher rated development. But lower rated ones are easier to upgrade. In another example, if your population is 6, and you have workshops 6 with +2 in bonuses, that workshop still functions at rating 8, even though that is greater than population.

There is also tribute. Tribute the the amount of your city's production that you as an archon receive, mostly as offerings donated at shrines or temples. Tribute is measured in units, a unit being equal in value to a handful of gold coins. If this is treasure, it might be a jeweled ring, a silver statuette, a pearl necklace, or a handful of gold coins. A unit of wood would be enough pine boards to build a house, a branch of finest ironwood, or a twig of sapient pearwood.

In general, you can use one unit of materials to add +1 to a die roll when applicable. As a work action, this can be up to the archon's aspect plus the follower's skill rating. As a standard action, it is only equal to the follower's skill rating. Examples include using building materials to build a better structure or using treasure for a bribe.

Population: This represents the people you have in the city. You keep track of it in the same area as your developments, but it is not a development. If your population is higher than your farms, malnutrition, starvation, and emigration will occur until the population is no higher than your farms.

Population produces no tribute directly. It cannot be boosted by any technology, archon bonus, or anything of the sort. It increases or decreases based on the town's satisfaction, and by perform as a work action.

Population 1: A camp with 20 people

Population 3: A village with 80 people

Population 6: A town with 600 people

Population 10: A city with 10,000 people

Farms: This is the first development you will need to build. somewhere between half and nine-tenths of your population will be farmers, and farms will be where they live and work. If your population is higher than your farms, roll a d6 for each point population is higher by, and lose that much progress on your population.

Farms produce a tribute of food equal to their rating.

Farms 1: A few farms and small gardens to produce enough feed to feed maybe 30 people.

Farms 3: This farming community has a variety of crops and animals to provide food and till the ground. It produces enough food to feed over 100 people.

Farms 6: This farming town has blossomed to cultivate all the nearby land, feeding almost 1,000 people and growing every plant or animal that the land can support. If it increases much more, it will need to start establishing smaller communities to support it.

Farms 10: Your city has gardens inside its walls and has tilled every acre within a day's journey, but it still isn't enough. By establishing farming villages within a week's journey, enough food can be delivered by wagonload to support the population center. If the city is attacked, those villagers will flee to the safety of the city walls.

Mine: This represents your quarries and above-ground mining operations as well as underground tunnels and cave expansions.

Mines produce an odd tribute. Roll a number of dice equal to the mine's rating. For every 5, you get a unit of ore (iron, copper, tin, bauxite, mythril). For every 6, you get a unit of treasure (gems, gold, silver). Every 1, 2, 3, or 4 produces a unit of stone (chert, granite, marble, gneiss).

Mines 1: Bob searches for useful rocks close to town.

Mines 3: You have a small quarry with half a dozen workers, possibly some convict labor.

Mines 6: The town has an actual mine, that goes underground, with dozens of workers.

Mines 10: The city has extensive mines with hundreds of laborers. It is probably extensive enough that it can begin to be carved into an underground community.

Lumber Camp: This represents your logging and forestry operations, as well as sawmills.

Lumber camps produce a tribute of wood, ranging from pine to oak to yew to ironwood. Even the wood of mythical trees is possible.

Lumber Camp 1: Your city has a couple of lumberjacks who work out of their cabin in the woods.

Lumber Camp 3: A team of workers begins to clear forest for lumber, and future cultivation.

Lumber Camp 6: Oxen and high-quality saws bring wood from the surrounding area to where it is needed, with a few camps coordinating their efforts. The recent construction of a sawmill is speeding production greatly.

Lumber Camp 10: Your city is fueled by hundreds of workers bringing in logs to one of several sawmills to quickly turn virgin forest into usable planks. Replanting efforts ensure the future of logging operations.

Workshops: This represents your craftsmen and women who turn raw materials into finished goods. Every archon gets a tribute of a single finely-crafted item each year. Players each roll the workshop's rating, with successes determining the rating of the equipment produced.


Workshops 1: You have a few tinkerers in your village who sell their crafts in their spare time, or during fairs.

Workshops 3: Dedicated artisans start setting up shop, and they truly take the time to master their craft.

Workshops 6: Almost any good can be found in your city, though true masters are rare.

Workshops 10: Your city is renowned for its craftsmanship, and it contains masters in every conceivable trade. Any item that can be produced by mortal hands can be found in your city, for a price.

Market: This represents your institutions of lending, inns, brothels, market stalls, gambling, trading posts, ports, and all means of commerce that produces no resources directly. Instead, it fuels the economy.

Market 1: The annual fair provides a time of exchange for travellers and villagers alike. Otherwise, aside from some bartering, your village has no commerce.

Market 3: Your village has a basic tavern and a couple people who work in the service industry. A small trading post hosts a part-time worker who handles imports and exports.

Market 6: Your town has a marketplace with a general store, a good inn and tavern, a thriving service industry, and a decent amount of trade with other cities.

Market 10: Your city has a thriving bazaar where just about anything can be bought or sold. Caravans come from near and far to do business, and if you have a port, it is filled with ships.

Sanctuaries: This represents the amount of temples, shrines, chapels, religious relics, and so on in your city.

Sanctuaries give each archon a tribute of connection equal to their rating, though the priests wouldn't refer to it as tribute.

Shrines 1: Each archon has a dedicated shrine.

Shrines 3: The town has a small temple dedicated to each archon, each of which is staffed by a priest or two. A few shrines are scattered about.

Shrines 6: The town has a temple for each archon. There is a shrine on most every street, and people come from the surrounding areas to see sacred relics.

Shrines 10: Each archon has a fantastic temple and smaller sanctuaries to support people who cannot travel frequently to the main one. Virtually every house has a personal set of figurines and the city has scattered shrines. A magnificent temple to all all archons stands near the center of the city, a monument to the spiritual and material wealth of the city.

Studios: This represents your city's artistic ability and available entertainment and decoration. It represents your artists, parks, gardens, and so on. Having studios equal to your population -3 grants you +1/2 to satisfaction and having studios equal to your population grants you +1 to satisfaction.

Studios 1: People begin to develop a system of arts and crafts beyond basic folk art.

Studios 3: A couple people take up full time artistry, and your village has developed full time artistry. Houses are decorated and people are starting to acquire goods that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Studios 6: You have several artists studios and your city has a monument to a major event as tall as the tallest building. A few statues and murals decorate the central plaza, which is tiled. Half the goods in your city are decorated and most people own a few works of art that serve no other purpose other than being beatiful.

Studios 10: Your city is a beautiful place to live. Every building in the center is a shows beautiful architecture, and a few are truly amazing works of art. Monuments are scattered throughout, and a massive wonder without compare in the world brings pride to everyone who lives in your city. Street performers, storytellers, and public artists are inspired by the murals and statues that are on nearly every building and street corner.

Clinics: This represents your city's medical facilities. If your clinics equal your population, your population is receiving suffiecient medical care. If short by one, half your population is getting enough medical care. Having clinics equal to population -3 grants +1/2 to satisfaction, while having clinics equal to population grants +1 to satisfaction.

Clinics 1: A two-room medical office with a medical expert and an assistant.

Clinics 3: A few small clinics, and half a dozen doctors.

Clinics 6: The beginnings of a hospital, augmented by some apothecaries and folk healers.

Clinics 10: Several hospitals, as well as a grand medical college that attracts the greatest medical minds to learn and to teach. Small clinics and apothecaries abound.

Defenses: This represents your city walls, towers, moat, and other defenses that keep invaders and monsters out. See warfare for more information.

Defenses grant no tribute.

Defenses 1: A trio of watchtowers and a small fort in the center of the village.

Defenses 3: A wooden palisade, with the watchtowers.

Defenses 6: A six-foot tall stone wall, with guard towers, a gate, a moat, and a strong,central keep.

Defenses 10: A forty-foot tall stone wall, protecting an even more fortified castle in the center of the city. Siege engines on the battlements can throw projectiles for long distances.

Barracks: While defeneses keep the homeland safe, barracks build an army for offense. See warfare for more information.

Barracks grant no tribute.

Barracks 1: The army consists of Fred. Fred has a club. In times of direst need, George will also answer the call.

Barracks 3: A single building to house and train a few soldiers. The city has a total of 8 soldiers.

Barracks 6: A large hall where dozens of soldiers train. The city has about 30 soldiers.

Barracks 10: Your kingdom supports a few men in heavy armor and elite cavalry, and can summon hundreds of lighter troops. The city has about 1,000 soldier.

Schools: From basic reading and writing to universities, this represents the city's educational system. Schools grant a bonus to the research work action to develop technological advancements.

Schools grant their rating as a bonus to the research action.

Schools 1: A hermit's shack where people go to listen to an old guy.

Schools 3: A small schoolhouse teaches children the basics for 10 hours a week.

Schools 6: Children are in school except during important harvest times. A small library serves as a place where adults can research and debate.

Schools 10: The school system can support a couple thousand children, and the university draws people from the surrounding cities to learn and advance the cause of knowledge. The library makes a copy of every book that passes through the city.


Offices: This is your administrative infrastructure, the palace, tax offices, constabulary, public works projects,

Every session roll offices, and grant any successes as experience to all champions.

Offices 1: The government is one person, who fulfills most civic functions during his off-time on his small farm.

Offices 3: The village has a mayor. He mostly keeps the peace, but he does have a couple people who report to him, keeping order and promoting the common good.

Offices 6: The town has formed a government to coordinate people, provide a central defense, and create and fund basic public works.

Offices 10: The bureaucracy of your city provides for a decent aristocracy, guilds of experts regulating commerce, sewers, efficient taxation, roads, prisons, and justices. Regular constabulary patrols keep order and protect the innocent. Sure, just about everything is illegal and inefficiency reigns, but isn't order and protection worth it?

Custom Developments
It is possible to come up with developments not on this list. In general, these come in two types: a development that does something different and one that does not.
The easiest different development is one that grants a new resouce. For instance, you might want a chemist's shop that produces gunpowder. Alternatively, choose a work action that the development grants a bonus to.

If the development duplicates a function of another development, add 1/3 of the lower-rated development's rating (rounded down) as a bonus to the higher-rated one. For example, fisheries might produce food alongside farms. Farms 7 and fisheries 6 means farms get a +2 bonus so they act as if they are rating 9 when it is convenient. But you still upgrade farms as if they are rating 7.

Magistrate
Everyone contributes to building the same town. So it may be helpful to appoint one of the players, probably one who is good with rules, as the magistrate. She will keep track of how the players contribute to the town's formation and then determine what resources are created. For this bit of responsibility she's also got a bit more influence on how the city develops, and may vest this authority in one of her followers. The GM may function as the magistrate but it is usually better to pass this responsibility to a player.

[Morph Bark]

There is a lot here! I have only read up to the Skills header, and so far the things that are unclear are what "connection" and "vim" are and how exactly the Interfere action works. What is being doubled? The result of your successes minus his succeses in defense, or is it just your successes?

[Rephath]

Connection is an archon's will and ability to do a miracle. Vim are magic points, used to cast a spell you have already cast once. That will be explained more in the lore section. You double the remaining successes after subtracting your opponent's roll. Will edit that to make it more clear.