Adventuring

Adventuring Days

Adventuring is the job of an Adventurer. What that entails is essentially narrowed down to the profession of facing challenges, tasks, and problems that every day, commonplace people cannot or will not be able to address and handle themselves.

Adventurers are seen as slightly crazy, somewhat naive, often greedy, of questionable trust, and absolutely necessary for life to continue. They come in a wide variety of kinds and sorts and have an enormous diversity of outlook, personality, background, and opinion, but they are all out there doing what they do as their job.

They train for this life, developing skills, and the formal washout rate for adventurers is in the high 80’s. So, to start off, those who choose this path are already among the best of the best, the most capable, and what they do from that point is anyone’s guess.

A typical day for an adventurer will involve finding a task to do, some way to earn their keep, to put food in the belly and a roof over their head and meet whatever motivation they may have for doing things. Adventurers are self-motivated people whose love of excitement and risk is balanced only by their commitment to doing it well and surviving.

Several different kinds of quests are posted in the Guild Hall daily, each offering a bounty or reward. The values will change depending on location and need and ability to pay for the local folks, but there is always something to do, and it can range from going off to pick something up to hunting down a band of Lemurians to rousting a bandit haven. It might mean taking out a threat to the local farms or investigating a crime in an out of the way location. It may involve seeking out a long-lost treasure or mapping out ruins.

In a given day, many different things can happen even while you are heading out on that day’s chosen effort. This section will look at many of those possibilities.

Exploration

Although Wyrlde is likely to be used with some sort of designed and established adventure or module, the ultimate underlying truth is that as players, the world – and the game – is there for exploration, for learning new things. Some campaigns are little more than travelogues, roaming from place to place and experiencing the assorted aspects of each location, camping out in the wilds, hazarding encounters, and poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.

That last one seems to be a gift of mine. This is a world, and it has wildlife and life that is wild and while most of it doesn’t want to eat you or beat you to a bloody pulp, a lot of it does. This is a game where one of the biggest things you can do is to listen and imagine and envision – even when it isn’t a game, and you are standing right here. Metaphor, remember?

Investigation

Once you know what your sense can tell you, it is time to look closer, to poke and prod and learn more about the little details, the big picture, and everything in between. Perhaps you are going to toss a noble’s quarters looking for their prized magic ring (hint, check the top of the wardrobe), or maybe you have stumbled on an Impish workshop in the Underdark. Mayhap you will need to figure out a guard’s rotation and path, or the best way to sneak into a village that is locking up at night.

This is where investigation comes in, and your insight, awareness, and careful listening and asking questions can make the play far more enjoyable. Especially when you do it in character, as the you that you have spent all this time creating.

Oh, I know you did it. Even if you were just reading through first, I know you paused and thought about what if I did this… I was where you are once. I just got bored and didn’t finish and look at me, a dead Faery.

That is the importance of investigating. So, you don’t end up a dead faery having to teach others about what lies ahead for them.

Hearing Descriptions

When exploring, listen close to the descriptions given. A good description will fill you in on several things, and sometimes what you hear descried or see shown to you can be the difference between life and death.

A good description should always tell you at least two things that impact on each of your senses. You should know what you See, should know what you can Hear, should have an idea of what you can Smell, understand how the air around you moves across your skin, or the roughness of a wall that you Touch, and you should have an idea about how the air Tastes or the winds tickles the tongue.

And you should also know how they are makes you Feel. As a game, this is a world of imagination, and you should never hesitate to make sure that you can get information about all of those senses.

The most important ones are what you Hear, how you Feel, and what you See. If an initial description doesn’t give that information to you, should ask, always.

Your DM will likely take some time to create some maps and write out some vague descriptions, but don’t let them get away without giving you the fullness of what you see, and always remember that in dim light, you are at a Disadvantage.

Discovery

Discovery covers a lot of territory, as it includes what happens after you investigate when you find something. Sometimes that thing will be good, sometimes it will be bad, sometimes it will make you rich and sometimes it will make you scratch your head.

This is part of the experience, and why your character has skills that you may not. This new life will present you with many things you will not have encountered before – and the same can be said no matter what plane you are heading for. Yrthe is just as strange and wild as Wyrlde is, so even if heading there the same rules still apply you should take the time to get to know the world you are in, and embrace it, and live through it.

Of course, not everything is wonderful.

Traps

Traps can be found almost anywhere. One wrong step in an ancient tomb might trigger a series of scything blades, which cleave through armor and bone. The seemingly innocuous vines that hang over a cave entrance might grasp and choke anyone who pushes through them. A net hidden among the trees might drop on travelers who pass underneath. In a fantasy game, unwary adventurers can fall to their deaths, be burned alive, or fall under a fusillade of poisoned darts.

A trap can be either mechanical or magical in nature. Mechanical traps include pits, arrow traps, falling blocks, water-filled rooms, whirling blades, and anything else that depends on a mechanism to operate. Magic traps are either magical device traps or spell traps. Magical device traps initiate spell effects when activated. Spell traps are spells such as glyph of warding and symbol that function as traps.

Traps In Play

When adventurers come across a trap, you need to know how the trap is triggered and what it does, as well as the possibility for the characters to detect the trap and to disable or avoid it.

Triggering a Trap

Most traps are triggered when a creature goes somewhere or touches something that the trap’s creator wanted to protect. Common triggers include stepping on a pressure plate or a false section of floor, pulling a trip wire, turning a doorknob, and using the wrong key in a lock. Magic traps are often set to go off when a creature enters an area or touches an object. Some magic traps (such as the glyph of warding spell) have more complicated trigger conditions, including a password that prevents the trap from activating.

Detecting and Disabling a Trap

Usually, some element of a trap is visible to careful inspection. Characters might notice an uneven flagstone that conceals a pressure plate, spot the gleam of light off a trip wire, notice small holes in the walls from which jets of flame will erupt, or otherwise detect something that points to a trap’s presence.

A trap’s description specifies the checks and DCs needed to detect it, disable it, or both. A character actively looking for a trap can attempt a Wisdom (Perception) check against the trap’s DC. You can also compare the DC to detect the trap with each character’s passive Wisdom (Perception) score to determine whether anyone in the party notices the trap in passing. If the adventurers detect a trap before triggering it, they might be able to disarm it, either permanently or long enough to move past it. You might call for an Intelligence (Investigation) check for a character to deduce what needs to be done, followed by a Dexterity check using thieves’ tools to perform the necessary sabotage.

Any character can attempt an Intelligence (Arcana) check to detect or disarm a magic trap, in addition to any other checks noted in the trap’s description. The DCs are the same regardless of the check used. In addition, dispel magic has a chance of disabling most magic traps. A magic trap’s description provides the DC for the ability check made when you use dispel magic.

In most cases, a trap’s description is clear enough that you can adjudicate whether a character’s actions locate or foil the trap. As with many situations, you shouldn’t allow die rolling to override clever play and good planning. Use your common sense, drawing on the trap’s description to determine what happens. No trap’s design can anticipate every possible action that the characters might attempt.

You should allow a character to discover a trap without making an ability check if an action would clearly reveal the trap’s presence. For example, if a character lifts a rug that conceals a pressure plate, the character has found the trigger, and no check is required.

Foiling traps can be a little more complicated. Consider a trapped treasure chest. If the chest is opened without first pulling on the two handles set in its sides, a mechanism inside fires a hail of poison needles toward anyone in front of it. After inspecting the chest and making a few checks, the characters are still unsure if it’s trapped. Rather than simply open the chest, they prop a shield in front of it and push the chest open at a distance with an iron rod. In this case, the trap still triggers, but the hail of needles fires harmlessly into the shield.

Traps are often designed with mechanisms that allow them to be disarmed or bypassed. Intelligent monsters that place traps in or around their lairs need ways to get past those traps without harming themselves. Such traps might have hidden levers that disable their triggers, or a secret door might conceal a passage that goes around the trap.

Trap Effects

The effects of traps can range from inconvenient to deadly, making use of elements such as arrows, spikes, blades, poison, toxic gas, blasts of fire, and deep pits. The deadliest traps combine multiple elements to kill, injure, contain, or drive off any creature unfortunate enough to trigger them. A trap’s description specifies what happens when it is triggered.

The attack bonus of a trap, the save DC to resist its effects, and the damage it deals can vary depending on the trap’s severity. Use the Trap Save DCs and Attack Bonuses table and the Damage Severity by Level table for suggestions based on three levels of trap severity.

A trap intended to be a setback is unlikely to kill or seriously harm characters of the indicated levels, whereas a dangerous trap is likely to seriously injure (and potentially kill) characters of the indicated levels. A deadly trap is likely to kill characters of the indicated levels.

Complex Traps

Complex traps work like standard traps, except once activated they execute a series of actions each round. A complex trap turns the process of dealing with a trap into something more like a combat encounter.

When a complex trap is activated, it rolls initiative. The trap’s description includes an initiative bonus. On its turn, the trap activates again, often taking an action. It might make successive attacks against intruders, create an effect that changes over time, or otherwise produce a dynamic challenge. Otherwise, the complex trap can be detected and disabled or bypassed in the usual ways.

For example, a trap that causes a room to slowly flood works best as a complex trap. On the trap’s turn, the water level rises. After several rounds, the room is completely flooded.

Sample Traps

The magical and mechanical traps presented here vary in deadliness and are presented in Alphabetical order.

Collapsing Roof

This trap uses a trip wire to collapse the supports keeping an unstable section of a ceiling in place.

The trip wire is 3 inches off the ground and stretches between two support beams. The DC to spot the trip wire is 10. A successful DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools disables the trip wire harmlessly. A character without thieves’ tools can attempt this check with Disadvantage using any edged weapon or edged tool. On a failed check, the trap triggers.

Anyone who inspects the beams can easily determine that they are merely wedged in place. As an action, a character can knock over a beam, causing the trap to trigger.

The ceiling above the trip wire is in bad repair, and anyone who can see it can tell that it’s in danger of collapse.

When the trap is triggered, the unstable ceiling collapses. Any creature in the area beneath the unstable section must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d10 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Once the trap is triggered, the floor of the area is filled with rubble and becomes difficult terrain.

Falling Net

This trap uses a trip wire to release a net suspended from the ceiling.

The trip wire is 3 inches off the ground and stretches between two columns or trees. The net is hidden by cobwebs or foliage. The DC to spot the trip wire and net is 10. A successful DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools breaks the trip wire harmlessly. A character without thieves’ tools can attempt this check with Disadvantage using any edged weapon or edged tool. On a failed check, the trap triggers.

When the trap is triggered, the net is released, covering a 10-foot-square area. Those in the area are trapped under the net and restrained, and those that fail a DC 10 Strength saving throw are also knocked prone. A creature can use its action to make a DC 10

Strength check, freeing itself or another creature within its reach on a success. The net has AC 10 and 20 hit points. Dealing 5 slashing damage to the net (AC 10) destroys a 5-foot-square section of it, freeing any creature trapped in that section.

Fire-Breathing Statue

This trap is activated when an intruder steps on a hidden pressure plate, releasing a magical gout of flame from a nearby statue. The statue can be of anything, including a dragon or a wizard casting a spell.

The DC is 15 to spot the pressure plate, as well as faint scorch marks on the floor and walls. A spell or other effect that can sense the presence of magic, such as detect magic, reveals an aura of evocation magic around the statue.

The trap activates when more than 20 pounds of weight is placed on the pressure plate, causing the statue to release a 30-foot cone of fire. Each creature in the fire must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d10 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Wedging an iron spike or other object under the pressure plate prevents the trap from activating. A successful dispel magic (DC 13) cast on the statue destroys the trap.

Pits

Four basic pit traps are presented here.

Simple Pit. A simple pit trap is a hole dug in the ground. The hole is covered by a large cloth anchored on the pit’s edge and camouflaged with dirt and debris.

The DC to spot the pit is 10. Anyone stepping on the cloth falls through and pulls the cloth down into the pit, taking damage based on the pit’s depth (usually 10 feet, but some pits are deeper).

Hidden Pit. This pit has a cover constructed from material identical to the floor around it.

A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check discerns an absence of foot traffic over the section of floor that forms the pit’s cover. A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check is necessary to confirm that the trapped section of floor is actually the cover of a pit.

When a creature steps on the cover, it swings open like a trapdoor, causing the intruder to spill into the pit below. The pit is usually 10 or 20 feet deep but can be deeper.

Once the pit trap is detected, an iron spike or similar object can be wedged between the pit’s cover and the surrounding floor in such a way as to prevent the cover from opening, thereby making it safe to cross. The cover can also be magically held shut using the arcane lock spell or similar magic.

Locking Pit. This pit trap is identical to a hidden pit trap, with one key exception: the trap door that covers the pit is spring-loaded. After a creature falls into the pit, the cover snaps shut to trap its victim inside.

A successful DC 20 Strength check is necessary to pry the cover open. The cover can also be smashed open. A character in the pit can also attempt to disable the spring mechanism from the inside with a DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools, provided that the mechanism can be reached, and the character can see. In some cases, a mechanism (usually hidden behind a secret door nearby) opens the pit.

Spiked Pit. This pit trap is a simple, hidden, or locking pit trap with sharpened wooden or iron spikes at the bottom. A creature falling into the pit takes 2d10 piercing damage from the spikes, in addition to any falling damage. Even nastier versions have poison smeared on the spikes. In that case, anyone taking piercing damage from the spikes must also make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 4d10 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Poison Darts

When a creature steps on a hidden pressure plate, poison-tipped darts shoot from spring-loaded or pressurized tubes cleverly embedded in the surrounding walls. An area might include multiple pressure plates, each one rigged to its own set of darts.

The tiny holes in the walls are obscured by dust and cobwebs, or cleverly hidden amid bas-reliefs, murals, or frescoes that adorn the walls. The DC to spot them is 15. With a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check, a character can deduce the presence of the pressure plate from variations in the mortar and stone used to create it, compared to the surrounding floor. Wedging an iron spike or other object under the pressure plate prevents the trap from activating. Stuffing the holes with cloth or wax prevents the darts contained within from launching.

The trap activates when more than 20 pounds of weight is placed on the pressure plate, releasing four darts. Each dart makes a ranged attack with a +8

bonus against a random target within 10 feet of the pressure plate (vision is irrelevant to this attack roll). (If there are no targets in the area, the darts don’t hit anything.) A target that is hit takes 2 (1d4) piercing damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 11 (2d10) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Poison Needle

A poisoned needle is hidden within a treasure chest’s lock, or in something else that a creature might open. Opening the chest without the proper key causes the needle to spring out, delivering a dose of poison.

When the trap is triggered, the needle extends 3 inches straight out from the lock. A creature within range takes 1 piercing damage and 2d10 poison damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour.

A successful DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check allows a character to deduce the trap’s presence from alterations made to the lock to accommodate the needle. A successful DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools disarms the trap, removing the needle from the lock. Unsuccessfully attempting to pick the lock triggers the trap.

Rolling Sphere

When 20 or more pounds of pressure are placed on this trap’s pressure plate, a hidden trapdoor in the ceiling opens, releasing a 10-foot-diameter rolling sphere of solid stone.

With a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check, a character can spot the trapdoor and pressure plate. A search of the floor accompanied by a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals variations in the mortar and stone that betray the pressure plate’s presence. The same check made while inspecting the ceiling notes variations in the stonework that reveal the trapdoor. Wedging an iron spike or other object under the pressure plate prevents the trap from activating.

Activation of the sphere requires all creatures present to roll initiative. The sphere rolls initiative with a +8 bonus. On its turn, it moves 60 feet in a straight line. The sphere can move through creatures’ spaces, and creatures can move through its space, treating it as difficult terrain. Whenever the sphere enters a creature’s space or a creature enters its space while it’s rolling, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 10d10 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.

The sphere stops when it hits a wall or similar barrier. It can’t go around corners, but smart dungeon builders incorporate gentle, curving turns into nearby passages that allow the sphere to keep moving.

As an action, a creature within 5 feet of the sphere can attempt to slow it down with a DC 20 Strength check. On a successful check, the sphere’s speed is reduced by 15 feet. If the sphere’s speed drops to 0, it stops moving and is no longer a threat.

Sphere of Annihilation

Magical, impenetrable darkness fills the gaping mouth of a stone face carved into a wall. The mouth is 2 feet in diameter and roughly circular. No sound issues from it, no light can illuminate the inside of it, and any matter that enters it is instantly obliterated.

A successful DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals that the mouth contains a sphere of annihilation that can’t be controlled or moved. It is otherwise identical to a normal sphere of annihilation.

Some versions of the trap include an enchantment placed on the stone face, such that specified creatures feel an overwhelming urge to approach it and crawl inside its mouth. This effect is otherwise like the sympathy aspect of the antipathy/sympathy spell. A successful dispel magic (DC 18) removes this enchantment.

Interaction

Companions

On occasions you will have a need for or establish a bond with a companion of some sort. Companions come in different forms: Familiars, Sidekicks, Aides, and Companions.

• Familiars cannot attack. The cannot be used to deliver an attack.
• Companions can attack. Companions can also become Sidekicks.
• Sidekicks can attack. They are, however, more independent than either Familiars or Companions.
• Aides are NPCs that can and will attack but have their own motivations and natures.

Interacting With Objects

A character’s interaction with objects in an environment is often simple to resolve in the game. The player tells the GM that his or her character is doing something, such as moving a lever, and the GM describes what, if anything, happens.

For example, a character might decide to pull a lever, which might, in turn, raise a portcullis, cause a room to flood with water, or open a secret door in a nearby wall. If the lever is rusted in position, though, a character might need to force it. In such a situation, the GM might call for a Strength check to see whether the character can wrench the lever into place. The GM sets the DC for any such check based on the difficulty of the task.

Characters can also damage objects with their weapons and spells. Objects are immune to poison and psychic damage, but otherwise they can be affected by physical and magical attacks much like creatures can. The GM determines an object’s Armor Class and hit points and might decide that certain objects have resistance or immunity to certain kinds of attacks. (It’s hard to cut a rope with a club, for example.) Objects always fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and they are immune to effects that require other saves. When an object drops to 0 hit points, it breaks.

A character can also attempt a Strength check to break an object. The GM sets the DC for any such check.

When characters need to saw through ropes, shatter a window, or smash a vampire’s coffin, the only hard and fast rule is this: given enough time and the right tools, characters can destroy any destructible object. Use common sense when determining a character’s success at damaging an object. Can a fighter cut through a section of a stone wall with a sword? No, the sword is likely to break before the wall does.

For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.

Statistics for Objects

When time is a factor, you can assign an Armor Class and hit points to a destructible object. You can also give it immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities to specific types of damage.

Armor Class. An object’s Armor Class is a measure of how difficult it is to deal damage to the object when striking it (because the object has no chance of dodging out of the way).

Hit Points. An object’s hit points measure how much damage it can take before losing its structural integrity. Resilient objects have more hit points than fragile ones. Large objects also tend to have more hit points than small ones, unless breaking a small part of the object is just as effective as breaking the whole thing.

Damage Threshold. Big objects such as castle walls often have extra resilience represented by a damage threshold. An object with a damage threshold has immunity to all damage unless it takes an amount of damage from a single attack or effect equal to or greater than its damage threshold, in which case it takes damage as normal. Any damage that fails to meet or exceed the object’s damage threshold is considered superficial and doesn’t reduce the object’s hit points.

Gigantic or Larger Objects. Normal weapons are of little use against many Gigantic and larger objects, such as a colossal statue, towering column of stone, or massive boulder. That said, one torch can burn a Huge tapestry, and an earthquake spell can reduce a colossus to rubble. You can track a Huge or Gargantuan object’s hit points if you like, or you can simply decide how long the object can withstand whatever weapon or force is acting against it. If you track hit points for the object, divide it into Large or smaller sections, and track each section’s hit points separately. Destroying one of those sections could ruin the entire object. For example, a Gargantuan statue of a human might topple over when one of its Large legs is reduced to 0 hit points.

Objects and Damage Types. Objects are immune to poison and psychic damage. You might decide that some damage types are more effective against a particular object or substance than others. For example, bludgeoning damage works well for smashing things but not for cutting through rope or leather. Paper or cloth objects might be vulnerable to fire and lightning damage. A pick can chip away stone but can’t effectively cut down a tree. As always, use your best judgment.

Interacting with Objects Around You

Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:

• Draw or sheathe a sword.
• Open or close a door.
• Withdraw a potion from your backpack.
• Pick up a dropped axe.
• Take a bauble from a table.
• Remove a ring from your finger.
• Stuff some food into your mouth.
• Plant a banner in the ground.
• Fish a few coins from your belt pouch.
• Drink all the ale in a flagon.
• Throw a lever or a switch.
• Pull a torch from the sconce.
• Take a book from a shelf you can reach.
• Extinguish a small flame.
• Don a mask.
• Pull the hood of your cloak up and over your head.
• Put your ear to the door.
• Kick a small stone.
• Turn a key in a lock.
• Tap the floor with a 10-­‐foot pole.
• Hand an item to another character.

Interacting With People

Influence

With the Influence action, you can try to influence another creature to do one thing that you request or demand. The DM determines when this action is available, and it can be used only on creatures controlled by the DM. It isn’t mind control; it can’t force a creature to do something that is counter to the creature’s alignment or that is otherwise repugnant to the creature.

Attitude

Follower. A Follower, or a Fan, is someone who is enamored of the character, who holds them in high esteem or hangs on their every word, is a close friend who trusts them.

Friendly. A Friendly creature wants to help the adventurers and wishes for them to succeed. For tasks or actions that require no particular risk, effort, or cost, Friendly creatures often help happily, with the Charisma check succeeding automatically. If an element of personal risk is involved, a successful Charisma check is usually required to convince a Friendly creature to take that risk.

Mistrustful. Strangers are often mistrustful of people they do not know, and so they will look upon something skeptically, with caution and suspicion. A successful Charisma check is usually necessary when the adventurers try to influence a creature with this attitude to do something.

Negotiating. When negotiating someone may have many things that can happen in their life outside of just the pleasantries of the day, the like of a charismatic person, or even having a good day. They want something, and so they are looking to get something of value out of it themselves. A successful Charisma check is usually necessary when the adventurers try to influence a creature with this attitude to do something.

Indifferent. This is the default Attitude for NPC creatures. An Indifferent creature might help or hinder the party, depending on what the creature sees as most beneficial. A creature’s indifference doesn’t necessarily make it standoffish or disinterested. Indifferent creatures might be polite and genial, surly and irritable, or anything in between. A successful Charisma check is usually necessary when the adventurers try to influence an Indifferent creature to do something.

Distrustful. A distrustful person has some reason to not trust and to disbelieve the individual, to reflect upon them as being beneath them or unimpressed and dismissive. A successful Charisma check is usually necessary when the adventurers try to influence a creature with this attitude to do something.

Hostile. A Hostile creature opposes the adventurers and their goals but doesn’t necessarily attack them on sight. The adventurers need to succeed on one or more Charisma checks to convince a Hostile creature to do anything on the party’s behalf; however, the DM might determine that the Hostile creature is so ill-disposed toward the characters that no Charisma check can sway it. In which case, the first check fails automatically, and no further Influence attempts can be made on the creature unless its Attitude shifts.

Mood

A creature’s mood can also influence how they interact with a character. Moods can vary from hour to hour, day to day, and are often affected by things well outside the Character’s ability to alter or change. Moods can have an impact on this.

• Happy. A Happy mood will generally make someone more inclined to be helpful, and more open to influence.
• Surprised. Those who are feeling this mood are startled, unprepared, wary.
• Sad. Perhaps they are grieving, or dealing with depression, and struggling with stressful events.
• Fearful. A fearful person, scared, frightened, is always ore difficult to persuade.
• Disgusted. Perhaps they are offended, or think poorly of the character, perhaps the character has show a lack of social grace or broken a custom.
• Angry. When someone is angry, they react poorly to efforts to influence them.

Interaction DCs

When you know the Attitude and the Mood of a subject, you now know the DC for the Charisma check.

		Mood
		Happy, Good	Surprised, Startled	Sad, Grief	Fearful, Scared	Disgusted, Offended	Angry, Upset
Attitude	Follower, Fan	6	8	10	12	14	16
	Friendly, Open	10	12	14	16	18	20
	Mistrustful, Hesitant	12	14	16	18	20	22
	Negotiating, Bargaining	14	16	18	20	22	24
	Indifferent, Uninterested	16	18	20	22	24	26
	Distrustful, Unwilling	18	20	22	24	26	28
	Hostile, Deadly	20	22	24	26	28	30

Interacting With Flora & Fauna

Wyrlde has both regular flora and fauna, and then it has irregular flora and fauna. There are oak trees and blackberry brambles, kudzu vines and Spanish moss, flowers of hundreds of different sorts, and grasses and food stuff are a large part of it, in part because for some reason Wyrlde has many things that are intentionally set up for people to live off of. There are rabbits and foxes and squirrels and wolves and deer and bears, oh my, elephants and tigers and zebras and they are in strange places that people don’t usually think of as normative for them. It is a world, a planet, that has much we would recognize at first glance, even if on closer inspection we would see differences from what Earth folks know.

But there are also squirrels the size of large dogs, and elephants the size of mice, eagles large enough to ride the backs of and lions the size of housecats. It is a complex, deeply intertwined world filled with a lot of layered systems that ultimately serve to make for a world that is wonderful and wondrous.

And then there are the Critters. Adventurers often, almost only, deal with critters more often that other wildlife. Because those things are not like the others. They are abominations and monsters, trolls and denizens, creatures and creations of a history of disaster and madness.

When interacting with the world around you, pay attention to things like the nature of a plant or an animal, because as adorable as Almiraj are to watch, their little noses twitching and fluffy bunny tails wriggling, they are also blindingly fast to gore you to death with those horns of theirs, even decapitating the unwary. Jackalopes are often mistaken for them, but they are more a nuisance than a threat, and then there are the housecats with three eyes that will steal your soul while sleep at night.

That said, the best response is not always to kill it first, worry about it later. It does work out that way often, but sometimes you can turn an encounter to your favor, and other times you can take an action that might come back to haunt you later.

I know Arabesque likely filled you with nightmare tales of Goblins and Thyrs, but keep in mind they are still people, if of a less preferred sort, and while they are often going to attack first and let the Powers sort them out, you may be able to use them for your purposes just as easily.

Time

In situations where keeping track of the passage of time is important, the GM determines the time a task requires. The GM might use a different time scale depending on the context of the situation at hand.

It takes them about a minute to creep down a long hallway, another minute to check for traps on the door at the end of the hall, and a good ten minutes to search the chamber beyond for anything interesting or valuable.

In a dungeon environment, the adventurers’ movement happens on a scale of minutes.

In a city or wilderness, a scale of hours is often more appropriate.

Adventurers eager to reach the lonely tower at the heart of the forest hurry across those fifteen miles in just under four hours’ time.

For long journeys, a scale of days works best.

Following the road from Isen’s Guard to Durango, the adventurers spend four uneventful days before a goblin ambush interrupts their journey.

In combat and other fast-paced situations, the game relies on Rounds, a 6-second span of time, or a Moment, which is a one second span of time.

Resting

Heroic though they might be adventurers can’t spend every hour of the day in the thick of exploration, social interaction, and combat. They need rest—time to sleep and eat, tend their wounds, refresh their minds and spirits for spellcasting, and brace themselves for further adventure.

Adventurers can take short rests in the midst of an adventuring day and a long rest to end the day.

Short Rest

A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, dozing, standing watch, and tending to wounds. Handiwork skill can be used during a Short rest, but no other craft skills.

A character can’t benefit from more than three short rests in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

HD Recovery: A character can spend one Hit Die per Degree of Mastery at the end of a short rest, up to 5 Hit Dice total, one at a time. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.

Aspect Recharge. Some Aspects are recharged by a Short Rest. If you have such a feature, it recharges in the way specified in its description.

An interrupted Short Rest confers no benefits, and it must be started over to confer any benefit. A Short Rest is stopped by the following interruptions:

• Rolling Initiative.
• Casting a spell requiring more than 1 point of Mana.
• Using more than 2 points of mana.
• Taking any damage.
• More than 15 minutes of walking or other physical exertion.

Long Rest

A long rest is a period of extended downtime, at least 8 hours long, during which a character sleeps for at least 6 hours or performs no more than 2 hours of light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than 2 hours. Handiwork craft skills can be used during a long rest, but no other craft skills.

A character can’t benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. If the rest was at least 1 hour long before the interruption, you gain the benefits of a Short Rest. You can resume a Long Rest immediately after an interruption. If you do so, the rest requires 1 additional hour to finish per interruption. A Long Rest is stopped by the following interruptions:

• Rolling Initiative.
• Casting a spell requiring more than 1 point of mana.
• Using more than 5 points of mana total.
• Taking any damage.
• 1 hour of walking or other physical exertion.
• At the end of a long rest, a character regains:

Half Lost HP. You regain half of all lost Hit Points.

HP Max Recovery. If your Hit Point Maximum was reduced, it increases by 10 from the reduced level, up to your maximum.

Fatigue Reduced. If you have the Fatigue condition, your level of exhaustion decreases by 2.

Aspect Recharge. Some Aspects are recharged by a Long Rest. If you have such a feature, it recharges in the way specified in its description.

Recuperating

You can use downtime between adventures to recover from a debilitating injury, disease, or poison. You regain one spent Hit Die each week of recuperating, up to your maximum number of hit dice,

After three days of downtime spent recuperating, you can make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a successful save, you can choose one of the following results:

• End one effect on you that prevents you from regaining hit points.
• For the next 24 hours, gain Advantage on saving throws against one disease or poison currently affecting you.

Encounters

Inevitably, there will come a time when you have an encounter. Whether through the lassitude of misfortune or the grand design of an eon, the calculations of some unseen for of the machinations of a petty noble, you will find yourself faced with one or more somethings and it will be a fight, flight, or negotiation to overcome it.

In a given day, one is anticipated to stumble across half a dozen to a dozen of these moments, these experiences. Day in, day out, they seem to be unending and eternal and often the only escape from them is to hunker down in some pleasant circumstance until the boredom drives you forth once more to conquer the vicissitudes of an unfeeling and unflinching world.

Thankfully, such opportunities are also how we improve.

Determining an Encounter CR

Generally speaking, Wyrlde presumes that as one improves, one has more encounters on a daily basis, and uses experience points to determine that. The number of encounters per day is matched roughly to the amount of experience each member of a party should gain from an encounter.

Wyrlde has 60 CR levels. There are 3 CR levels for each of the character levels, representing degrees of challenge – this can make it easier to roughly figure out a CR goal for a given average party level.

To determine the Average Party Level, which is the levels of all the PCs added together and divided by the number of people in the party. This would include the CR, or Challenge Rating, of any companions, sidekicks, and NPCs that are on the side of the party. That is called the APL, or Average Party Level.

Average Party Level to Average CR Level

APL	ACR	APL	ACR	APL	ACR	APL	ACR
1	1	6	8	11	16	16	23
2	2	7	10	12	17	17	25
3	4	8	11	13	19	18	26
4	5	9	13	14	20	19	28
5	7	10	14	15	22	20	29

Encounter Difficulty

Encounters come in five types of difficulty. To determine the difficulty goal of a particular encounter, you have

Easy: ACR -2, these are encounters where the party should be able to handle them with some effort.

Simple: ACR -1, these encounters can look more difficult, but still be within the ability of two characters.

Typical: Equal to ACR, this is the encounter where multiple characters must be involved, and there is likely to be a need for healing afterward.

Hard: ACR +1, this kind of encounter is a real test of the capabilities of more than two members of the party, and may completely deplete ammunition, mana, and other resources, typically needing a rest afterwards.

Deadly: ACR +2, this kind of encounter is a challenge to the Players. It requires communication, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the other players, and playing to them, using their combined skills to defeat the foe. A full party of five should be worried as they battle, for this kind of encounter will often mean death if they don’t plan properly. Double the Experience point value for this encounter, if used.

Heroic/Legendary/Mythic/Iconic: ACR +3 to +6. These are the encounters that challenge everything about a PC, including teamwork, strategy, tactical thinking, resource usage, and overall is still a fight that is most likely to result in the death of the PCs. In general, it should take at least 5 1^st Level PCs to handle a CR 7 creature and use everything they have. Use these very sparingly, at most once in a single degree of mastery. Surviving these kinds of encounters should provide boosts to Renown and Piety. Experience point awards if used should be 3, 4, 5, and 6 times the normal XP earned.

The APL, then is used to determine the basic challenge Goal for an encounter, and you can choose to “rule of thumb” a goal from above, or you can calculate a challenge goal.

The challenge goal is next determined by how much of a challenge the party is going to face. If you want to be more precise, you can use the Encounter Difficulty Table. Here, you cross reference the APL with the desired challenge.

On that Table, Level is APL = Average Party Level, and features the Degree of Mastery Groups. It also shows the number of Encounters per day, and the bare minimum amount of experience each PC should get from that encounter. It then lists out the five challenge points, and by cross referencing the level with the difficulty, you can gain the goal, or the ACR, which stands for Average Challenge Rating.

Encounter Difficulty Table

	Level	No. of Encounters	XP / PC	Easy	Simple	Typical	Hard	Deadly	Heroic	Legend	Mythic	Iconic
Novice	1st	2	5	-2	-1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	2nd	2	11	-1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	3rd	3	17	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
	4th	3	23	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Yeoman	5th	4	35	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	6th	4	50	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
	7th	4	80	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
	8th	5	110	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Adept	9th	5	140	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
	10th	5	190	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
	11th	6	250	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
	12th	6	310	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Master	13th	6	370	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
	14th	6	450	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
	15th	7	540	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
	16th	7	630	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Grand Master	17th	7	720	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
	18th	8	810	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
	19th	8	900	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
	20th	8	990	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26

The ACR is your goal and affects the entre goal for the whole of the particular encounter – it is an average, so you can have stronger or Higher CR creatures in the encounter, but they have to be balanced by lower CR beings in a planned encounter.

Multiplier	Number of PCs per Opponent
.75
.5	2 per
.33	3 per
.25	4 per
.20	5 per
.125	8 per
.1	10 per
.075
.05	20 per
.033	30 per
.025	40 per
.020	50 per
.0125	60 per
.01	100 per

Number of Creatures

Most encounters involve a group of creatures. It is rare to encounter a solo creature, even in random encounters. The default number of beings encountered is determined by a ratio.

The number of creatures that a PC can face is determined by their level against the final CR for the creature they are facing. For the numbers less than one, you can reference the number of PCs required to face that character in the small table to the right, which converts those numbers. This table can also be used to determine how many common folk are needed to face a powerful foe.

This is expressed as a multiplier in the table below. For each Party member of a given level you cross check that with the final CR of the Creature and multiply the total number of people in the Party by the number shown.

When dealing with a Party of characters, the CR works off the average level of the characters.

Number of Opponents by PC Level and CR.

CR	Norm	Novice		Yeoman		Adept		Master		Grandmaster
	0	1 – 2	3 – 4	5 – 6	7 – 8	9 – 10	11 – 12	13 – 14	15 – 16	17 – 18	19 – 20
-5	1.5	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5	5.5	6	6.5	7
-4	1.25	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75	4.25	4.75	5.25	5.75	6.25	6.75
-3	1	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5	5.5	6	6.5
-2	.75	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75	4.25	4.75	5.25	5.75	6.25
-1	.5	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5	5.5	6
1	.33	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75	4.25	4.75	5.25	5.75
2	.25	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5	5.5
3	.20	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75	4.25	4.75	5.25
4	.125	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5
5	.1	.33	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75	4.25	4.75
6	.075	.25	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5
7	.05	.20	.33	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75	4.25
8	.033	.125	.25	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5	4
9	.025	.1	.20	.33	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25	3.75
10	.020	.075	.125	.25	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
11	.0125	.05	.1	.20	.33	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75	3.25
12	.01	.033	.075	.125	.25	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3
13	—	.025	.05	.1	.20	.33	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25	2.75
14	—	.020	.033	.075	.125	.25	.5	1	1.5	2	2.5
15	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1	.20	.33	.75	1.25	1.75	2.25
16	—	.01	.020	.033	.075	.125	.25	.5	1	1.5	2
17	—	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1	.20	.33	.75	1.25	1.75
18	—	—	.01	.020	.033	.075	.125	.25	.5	1	1.5
19	—	—	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1	.20	.33	.75	1.25
20	—	—	—	.01	.020	.033	.075	.125	.25	.5	1
21	—	—	—	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1	.20	.33	.75
22	—	—	—	—	.01	.020	.033	.075	.125	.25	.5
23	—	—	—	—	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1	.20	.33
24	—	—	—	—	—	.01	.020	.033	.075	.125	.25
25	—	—	—	—	—	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1	.20
26	—	—	—	—	—	—	.01	.020	.033	.075	.125
27	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.0125	.025	.05	.1
28	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.01	.020	.033	.075
29	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.0125	.025	.05
30	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.01	.020	.033
31	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.0125	.025
32	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.01	.020
33	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.0125
34	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	.01
35	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Determining a Creature CR

From time to time, you may need to create or modify a challenge rating. When modifying a creature you can never go below -5 or above 35. To start from scratch, you have to have a rough idea of what the starting CR for a creature is. For that you have a choice of two options.

Generalized Challenge Ratings

DoM	Base CR
Apprentice	0
Novice	2
Yeoman	6
Adept	10
Master	14
Grandmaster	18

This is determined by the Degree of Mastery of the party as shown in the table to the right.

Level of Party: The average level of all party members is used to determine the base CR for a given creature. That sets the baseline, which is then modified by all other aspects up or down.

Default Challenge Ratings

When creating a challenge rating from scratch, you start with the default challenge ratings table, which lists out the baseline expectations for a creature of each CR.

From this table, you can then begin to modify the creature according to the different aspects.

CR	XP/PC	HD Type	# HD	AC	# ATK	ATK+	Dam Die	Prof	Abi Scr	Save DC	Magic
-5	1	d2	.50	1	1/4	-3	d4	-1	6	5	None
-4	2	d4	.50	2	1/3	-2	d4	-1	7	6	None
-3	3	d4	.75	4	1/3	-1	d4	-1	8	7	Cantrip
-2	4	d4	1	6	1/2	+0	d4	-1	9	8	Cantrip
-1	5	d4	2	8	1/2	+0	d4	-1	10	9	Cantrip
1	6	d6	2	10	1	+1	d6	-1	10	10	1st
2	10	d6	3	10	1	+1	d6	0	10	10	1st
3	15	d6	4	11	1	+1	d6	0	11	10	1st
4	20	d6	5	11	1	+1	d6	0	11	10	1st
5	25	d8	5	12	1	+2	d6	0	11	10	2nd
6	35	d8	6	12	1	+2	d8	0	12	11	2nd
7	45	d8	7	13	2	+2	d8	0	12	11	2nd
8	55	d8	8	13	2	+2	d8	+1	12	11	2nd
9	65	d10	8	14	2	+3	d8	+1	13	11	3rd
10	75	d10	9	14	2	+3	d8	+1	13	12	3rd
11	95	d10	10	15	2	+3	d10	+1	13	12	3rd
12	115	d10	11	15	2	+3	d10	+1	14	12	3rd
13	135	d12	11	16	3	+4	d10	+1	14	13	4th
14	155	d12	12	16	3	+4	d10	+2	14	13	4th
15	175	d12	13	17	3	+4	d10	+2	15	14	4th
16	215	d12	14	17	3	+4	d12	+2	15	15	4th
17	255	d14	14	18	3	+5	d12	+2	15	16	5th
18	295	d14	15	18	3	+5	d12	+2	16	17	5th
19	335	d14	16	19	4	+5	d12	+2	16	18	5th
20	375	d14	17	19	4	+5	d12	+3	16	19	5th
21	455	d16	17	20	4	+6	d14	+3	17	20	6th
22	535	d16	18	20	4	+6	d14	+3	17	21	6th
23	615	d16	19	21	4	+6	d14	+3	17	22	6th
24	695	d16	20	21	4	+6	d14	+3	18	23	7th
25	775	d18	20	22	5	+7	d14	+3	18	24	7th
26	855	d18	21	22	5	+7	d16	+4	18	25	7th
27	935	d18	22	23	5	+7	d16	+4	19	26	8th
28	1015	d18	23	23	5	+7	d16	+4	19	27	8th
29	1095	d20	23	24	5	+8	d16	+4	19	28	8th
30	1175	d22	23	24	5	+8	d16	+4	20	29	9th
31	1135	d24	23	25	6	+8	d20	+4	21	30	9th
32	1495	d26	23	26	6	+8	d20	+5	22	30	9th
33	1655	d28	23	27	6	+9	d20	+5	23	30	9th
34	1815	d30	23	28	6	+9	d20	+5	24	30	9th
35	1975	d30	24	29	6	+9	d20	+5	25	30	9th

You then begin to use different aspects about the creature to add or subtract from this base number. Each factor has a different impact, and this provides extreme flexibility in determining the rating, allowing you to take a single creature and adjust it according to the needs you have for the encounter.

There are several measures that can modify a base challenge rating:

Highest Ability Scores: the highest Ability score of the creature.

Average Ability Score: the average of all their ability scores.

Armor Class: Is the armor class greater or lesser than the base for that creature? This impacts CR.

Proficiency Bonus: The highest proficiency bonus of the creature.

Size: How big is it? Wyrlde has many more sizes of creatures and size determines the kind of hit die they use, and some critters have either bigger or smaller hit dice, which impacts the CR. The size of a creature also determines the size of the damage die it uses.

Hit Dice: The number of and type of hit dice the creature has.

Attack Bonus: the highest attack bonus of the creature.

Save DC: The highest Save DC of the creature.

XP Value: The anticipated XP Value of the Creature.

Attacks: How many attacks per round does the creature have? Some creatures have no attacks, others have many more than 1.

Magic: What Degrees of complexity does the critter have the ability to use based on spells or powers? Note that special abilities and the like do count for this feature, even if they don’t normally use magic spells. So Psionics, Runes, Words of Power, and similar elements apply as well.

Lairs: A creature fought in a lair is more difficult to deal with than one outside of it. Simple Lairs are easier, more well defend and difficult to deal with lairs are harder.

Swarms have a special category. A Swarm may increase the CR of a given creature based on the number of creatures each party member is dealing with. Note that swarms are applied only for Bitty and Micro size creatures; larger ones will use the normal ratio factor.

Creature Type. Some types of creatures increase the or decrease the CR for an encounter.

Situational. Some situations change the CR of an encounter.

These factors and the change to CR they provide can vary, so each factor has its own modification. You identify the factor, look it up, and see what the modification to the CR is.

Yes, this does mean that in most encounters, the party will be outnumbered and outpowered.

The ACR is your goal and affects the entire goal for the whole of the particular encounter – it is an average, so you can have stronger or Higher CR creatures in the encounter, but they have to be balanced by lower CR beings in a planned encounter.

The above presumes facing groups of roughly the same CR. If the group is mixed, then you can use the average values of all attackers to determine the overall CR of a larger encounter, essentially treating them as a single creature for purposes of the math.

Size Modifiers

Size can determine several different elements of a creature that affect their challenge rating. Size is the most obvious, but also both the die and the number of dice that a creature has, as well as the average number of hit points they might have and as a factor of their size, the potential damage they can cause to poor unsuspecting adventurers.

This charts shows the effective baselines for all size of creatures on Wyrlde. However, all of these baselines can be adjusted to achieve the goal you have for a given creature. You can start with a Huge Creature, which is normally a +2 CR, but you can have them use a d4 for hit points, getting a -3 CR.

CR Change	Size Category	Space	Hit Die	Avg HP / Die	# Hit Dice	Damage Die (avg)	Swarms
-5	Micro	1 in by 1 in	d4	1	.25	1 pt	—
-4	Bitty	3 in by 3 in	d4	2.5	.5	2 pts	—
-3	Wee	6 in by 6 in	d4	2.5	.75	d4 (2.5)	—
-2	Tiny	9 in by 9 in	d6	3.5	1	d4 (2.5)	—
-1	Little	18 in by 18 in	d6	3.5	1	d6 (3.5)	—
0	Small	3 ft. by 3 ft.	d8	4.5	1	d6 (3.5)	1
0	Medium	6 ft. by 6 ft.	d8	5.5	2	d8 (4.5)	5
0	Big	9 ft. by 9 ft.	d10	5.5	3	d10 (5.5)	10
+1	Large	12 ft. by 12 ft.	d12	6.5	4	d12 (6.5)	20
+2	Huge	15 ft. by 15 ft.	d14	7.5	5	d14 (7.5)	30
+3	Gigantic	18 ft. by 18 ft	d16	8.5	6	d16 (8.5)	40
+4	Massive	21 ft. by 21 ft.	d18	9.5	7	d18 (9.5)	50
+5	Immense	24 ft. by 24 ft.	d20	10.5	8	D20 (10.5)	60
+6	Monstrous	27 ft by 27 ft.	d22	11.5	9	d22 (11.5)	70
+7	Humongous	30 ft. by 30 ft	d24	12.5	10	D24 (12.5)	80
+8	Gargantuan	36 ft. by 36 ft	d26	13.5	12	d26 (13.5)	90
+9	Colossal	42 ft. by 42 ft	d28	14.5	14	d28 (14.5)	100
+10	Titanic	48 ft. by 48 ft	d30	15.5	17	d30 (15.5)	120

After Size, you then begin to look at the various features you want to give the creature, as well as how you want to alter the CR.

CR Modifiers Table

CR Change	Ability Scores	Die Type	Hit Dice	Hit Points	Armor Class	Atk Bon	Save DC	Prof Bonus	Atk/ Round	Damage Die
-10	1	D1				—	1	-10		—
-9	2	D1				—	2	-9		—
-8	3	D1				—	3	-8		—
-7	4	D2				—	4	-7		—
-6	5	D2				—	5	-6		1 pt
-5	6	D2	1/4	1	1 or lower	—	6	-5		2 pts
-4	7	D4			2 – 3	—	7	-4		3 pts
-3	8	D4	1/2	5	4 – 5	—	8	-3		d4 (2.5)
-2	9	D6			6 – 7	—	9	-2
-1	10	D6	1	10	8 – 9	—	10	-1		d6 (3.5)–
0	11	D8	2	15	10 – 11	—	12	0	1	d8 (4.5)
+1	12	D8	2	20	12 – 13	1-2	14	+1	2	d10 (5.5)
+2	13-14	d10	3	30	14 – 15	3-4	16	+2	3
+3	15-16	d12	4	40	16 – 17	5-6	18	+3		d12 (6.5)
+4	17-18	d14	5	50	18 – 19	7-8	20	+4		d14 (7.5)
+5	19-20	d16	6	75	20 to 22	9-10	21	+5	4	d16 (8.5)
+6	21-22	d18	8	100	23	11-13	22	+6	5	D18 (9.5)
+7	23-24	d20	10	150	24	14-16	23	+7	6	—
+8	25-26	d22	12	200	25	17-19	24	+8	7	d20 (10.5)
+9	27-28	d24	14	250	26	20-22	25	+9		—
+10	29-30	d30	16	300	27	23-25	26	+10	8	d24 (12.5)

Combat Modifiers

Certain combat actions and capabilities can alter a CR as they are scaled up or down as well. Several different things can alter the modifiers here.

These changes are reflected in the following chart.

CR Change	Attacks/ Round	AC Change	Hit Die Change	Die Change	Magic Complexity	Lair
-10			-10	Down 10	—	—
-9			-9	Down 9	—	—
-8			-8	Down 8	—	—
-7			-7	Down 7	—	—
-6			-6	Down 6	—	—
-5		-5	-5	Down 5	—	—
-4		-4	-4	Down 4	—	—
-3		-3	-3	Down 3	—	Far Away from Lair
-2		-2	-2	Down 2	—
-1		-1	-1	Down 1	—	Unusually out of lair
0	1	Base	0	None	—
+1	2	+1	+1	Up 1	Simple	In lair
+2	3	+2	+2	Up 2
+3		+3	+3	Up 3	Rudimentary	prepared Lair
+4	4	+4	+4	Up 4
+5		+5	+5	Up 5	Intermediate	Deadly lair
+6	5	+6	+6	Up 6
+7		+7	+7	Up 7	Advanced	Dimensional Lair
+8	6	+8	+8	Up 8
+9		+9	+9	Up 9	Expert	Planar Lair
+10	7	+10	+10	up 10

Capability Modifiers

Any Resistance or Immunity a creature may have affects its CR as well. These modifiers are for each one.

	Normal Weapon	Magical Weapon	Elemental	Planar	Nebulous	Damage
Resistance	+2	+4	+1	+1	+1	+2
Immunity	+4	+5	+2	+2	+2	+4
Vulnerability	-2	-0	-1	-1	-1	-2
Weakness	-1	-1	-1	0	0	-1

Creature Type Modifiers

Some types of Creature modify the Challenge rating due to the nature of the being.

Creature Type	CR Modification	Creature Type	CR Modification	Creature Type	CR Modification	Creature Type	CR Modification
Aberrations	+2	Abominations	+3	Grimms	+1	Horrors	+1
Constructs	+1	Corruptions	+1	Rumored	*	Salathen	+2
Denizens	+4	Dragons	+5	Trolls	+2	Spirits	+1
Elementals	+2	Giants	+1	Undying	+3	Water Monsters	+2

Situational Modifiers

Certain situations further modify the CR in a planned encounter, much the same way that a Lair structure does.

CR Mod	Situation
-1	Minimum hit points
+1	Maximum hit points
+2	Legendary Actions, each
+1	Difficult Terrain
+2	Unstable Terrain
+1	Lightly Obscured vision
+2	Obscured vision
+3	Heavily Obscured vision
+1	The whole party is surprised, and the enemy isn’t.
+2	The enemy has cover, and the party doesn’t.
+3	The characters are unable to see the enemy.
+2	The characters are taking damage every round from some environmental effect or magical source, and the enemy isn’t.
+4	The characters are hanging from a rope, in the midst of scaling a sheer wall or cliff, stuck to the floor, or otherwise in a situation that greatly hinders their mobility or makes them sitting ducks.

Die Chain

The Die Chain for Monsters is below. Moving up or down that changes the CR as well, with the lowest a d4, the highest a d30.

d4

d6

d8

d10

d12

d14

d16

d18

d20

d22

d24

d26

d28

d30

Balancing

Finally, you balance by adjusting the hit points and the combined damage done in a single turn. Balancing CR is based on the combined hit points of the party and the foes, followed by the combined average damage of each side.

To determine average damage, multiply one half the damage die by the number of attacks of the creature. A balanced encounter on Wyrlde is considered to have a Ratio of Foes to Party of 1.5:1. The creatures should have a ratio of 1.5 on HP and Damage over the party.

Monster Professions

Monsters on Wyrlde are still NPCs. Some of them are Sentient and Sapient beings who have just as much ability to grow and improve as PCs do.

This is especially notable for being such as Goblins, Merow, Imps, Thyrs, Grendels, Kobolds, and other beings.

These kinds of beings can have Professions of their Own. There are several of them:

Priest	Mage	Warrior	Rogue
Physic	Sage	Oracle	Merchant
Tradesman	Artisan	Nobility	Rebel

Of them, the four we will look at right now are the first four in the list: Priest, Mage, Warrior, Rogue.

These are all directly translatable to Cleric, Wizard, Warrior, and Corsair. A Rebel would be an Outlaw.

They gain the same fortes as those classes at an equivalent level (this is why Degrees of Mastery are used).

You can have them advance at the same rate as the PCs, if you choose, and you can assign them assorted Aspects as needed.

However, Monsters do not use Character Sheets. They always use Stat Blocks.

Default People

They are the most common sort of person on will meet, an average of the whole world.

Most people on Wyrlde are going to be between 0 and 5^th level equivalents. This is the overwhelming majority of folks. From there, you will have people over varying levels of skill and position.

They follow the same essential progression as players do, so you still have Commoner, Novice, Yeoman, Adept, Master, and Grand Masters.

The default person will have scores show as below.

DoM	Commoner	Novice	Yeoman	Adept	Master	Grand Master
Base CR	1	2	6	10	14	18
Ability Scores	10	11	13	15	17	19
Hit Dice (D8)	1	2	6	10	14	18
Hit Points (HP)	5	12	31	49	68	95
Armor Class (AC)	8	10	10	12	14	16
Atk Bonus	0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Save DC	10	11	13	15	17	19
Prof Bonus	0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5
Level Equivalent	0	2nd	5th	11th	14th	17th

Commoner Stat Blocks

Often, someone will need a stat block for a commoner of roughly an equivalent level to a PC. You can use this table to determine their key abilities.

CR	AC	HP	#HD	Speed	STR DEX CON	INT WIS CHA	PER SAN MAN	Prof Bonus	Atk Bonus	Damage
0	10	4	1d8	30	10	10	10	+2	+2	1d4
1	10	6	1d8	30	10	10	10	+2	+2	1d4
2	10	8	2d8	30	10	10	10	+2	+2	1d4
3	10	10	2d8	30	11	10	10	+2	+3	1d6
4	10	12	3d8	30	11	10	11	+3	+3	1d6
5	11	14	3d8	30	11	11	11	+3	+3	1d6
6	11	16	4d8	30	12	11	11	+3	+3	1d8
7	11	18	4d8	30	12	11	11	+3	+4	1d8
8	11	20	5d8	30	12	11	12	+4	+4	1d8
9	11	22	5d8	30	13	12	12	+4	+4	1d10
10	12	24	6d8	30	13	12	12	+4	+4	1d10
11	12	26	6d8	30	13	12	12	+4	+5	1d10
12	12	28	7d8	30	14	12	13	+5	+5	1d12
13	12	30	7d8	30	14	13	13	+5	+5	1d12
14	12	32	8d8	30	14	13	13	+5	+5	1d12
15	13	34	8d8	30	15	13	13	+5	+6	1d14
16	13	36	9d8	30	15	13	14	+6	+6	1d14
17	13	38	9d8	30	15	14	14	+6	+6	1d14
18	13	40	10d8	30	16	14	14	+6	+6	1d16
19	13	42	10d8	30	16	14	14	+6	+7	1d16
20	14	44	10d8	30	16	14	15	+7	+7	1d16

Downtime

Montages

Between trips to dungeons and battles against ancient evils, adventurers need time to rest, recuperate, and prepare for their next adventure. Many adventurers also use this time to perform other tasks, such as crafting arms and armor, performing research, or spending their hard-earned gold.

In some cases, the passage of time is something that occurs with little fanfare or description. When starting a new adventure, the GM might simply declare that a certain amount of time has passed and allow you to describe in general terms what your character has been doing. At other times, the GM might want to keep track of just how much time is passing as events beyond your perception stay in motion.

On Wyrlde, these are usually done as a gaming session of a type called Montages. A Montage is a round robin conducted at the beginning of a session that gives each Player a chance to describe what they did, in five minutes, including any rolls necessary.

Advancing

Everyone has to move up in the world. You can train beneath your Master or train those you are Master for, you can go through your Rite of Mastery, deal with aspects of renown or simply work hard honing your skills. You can also increase your Mastery if you have the experience or milestones for it. This takes a week as you prepare for the Ordeal and the Rite.

Carousing

Sometimes, a person just needs to let off a little steam, or engage in simple, basic pleasures. Which is code for all the things we do when we need a distraction: playing games, entertaining the lovelies of our desire, and the ever-popular carousing at the local Saloon or stand in.

See the Poisoned Condition for aspects of intoxication.

Crafting

This section is not about crafting magical items. For that you need to look into the rules around Imbuing and Ingraining. But most magical items require a base into which they imbue or ingrain powers, and that means something that can be made by someone with the appropriate skills and tools to be able to do it.

Wyrlde has a fairly simple crafting system that is distinct and more involved than the default 5e system. As a result, Player Characters can craft items during Downtime periods, and there is greater value and import placed on the artisan’s tools and the guild system.

Workshop Skills

Armory	Artistry	Brewery	Bowery	Buildery
Carpentry	Cleanery	Clothery	Cookery	Glazery
Handiwork	Husbandry	Instrumentry	Knowery	Masonry
Mekery	Millery	Minery	Papery	Peasantry
Physicry	Pigmentry	Plantery	Scribery	Shipwright
Smithery	Weavery	Wrightery

Workshops

All crafting requires the use of a workshop. A Workshop is the space and place where the tools and circumstances are designed to maximize the end product. There is one exception to this: Handiwork can be performed anywhere.

Workshops vary from craft to craft in their size, cost, and materials, but ultimately come down to certain kinds of work, each set up accordingly. A workshop must be run by a Yeoman or better, though normally a workshop isn’t affordable until at least Adept. Workshops belonging to others may be used for personal projects, but often this is joined by a requirement of helping out in the day-to-day work of the shop itself and requires permission of the workshop owner.

Bastions have the ability to provide a workshop for adventurers.

All workshops have a mark of trade provided by the guild, and without that mark will have a very difficult time selling their wares.

Using a workshop will end a short or long rest, with the exception of the Skills of Handiwork and Scribery.

A workshop will have the same Degree of Mastery as the person who runs it, which may be different from the person who owns it. Thus, a Workshop being run by a Novice will produce novice level product, while one run by a master or Grand Master will produce much better product.

Creation

While crafting, you can maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 sp per day, or a comfortable lifestyle at half the normal cost. To create an object, there are a few basic steps to follow:

First, you have to know what you are going to make. It needs to be something wholly within the capability of that particular craft. If the object requires the involvement of additional crafts, as determined by your DM, then the object must be created in stages, moving from one workshop to the next.

Second, you must know the materials needed for the object. Something that will be used for magical purposes may require unusual materials that have to be worked into the object during the regular formation. Materials will have a basic cost, determined by the DM, and are presumed to always be the best materials available.

The Workshop provides the tools and equipment necessary for creation, and the way of making it is presumed by the skill in the craft. On occasion, there will be something deemed original and unusual. These kinds of items increase the difficulty of a given effort to create something.

Third, you have to have the time to make the object. Time is always expressed in total hours and working on a project for more than 8 hours in a day will give 1 point of fatigue for every 2 hours longer than 8 worked on in a single day. The time to craft an object varies, and is determined by your DM.

Assistance

Multiple characters can combine their efforts toward the crafting of a single item, provided that the characters all have proficiency with the requisite tools and are working together in the same place.

Each individual contributing reduces the hours by the number of hours they contribute to it.

The character who’s leading the effort, or the one with the highest ability modifier, can make an ability check with Advantage, reflecting the help provided by the other characters.

Roll

When crafting, the “ability” score used is the Character’s level, and the roll is made using a d20 plus the modifier according to that Crafting group based on the key ability score, plus the proficiency Bonus (if they have proficiency).

A Grand Master Blacksmith with a Strength of 12 adds a +1 for their Strength, +3 to for their Proficiency, their proficiency bonus (+4), and is 17^th Level. So, for them, the DC has to be higher than 25 for them to fail to make the item – and they have advantage. A Novice may be only 3^rd level, and the DC would have to be above 5 for them to fail.

The more you work and develop your craft, the easier things become. Common DCs are found in the crafting example Table, along with typical materials cost, the time needed to craft, and the complication chance.

Quality

As noted before, the quality of an item can have an effect on the value and durability of an object. Quality is determined by the Degree of Mastery of the person who runs the shop that day.

Quality items are more resistant to damage and destruction – an Adept quality item gains a +1 on saves, a Master quality item gains a +2 on saves, and a Grand Master quality item gains a +3 on saves.

Items that your facility crafts will sell for normal price, adjusted by the level of mastery. Yeoman quality items are +50% the value of Novice items. Adept are +100% the price. Master are +150% the price. Grand Master are +200% the price.

Crafting Notes

For unstated items, you can craft one or more items with a total market value not exceeding 5 gp, and you must expend raw materials worth at minimum half the total market value (though you can spend more).

If something you want to craft has a market value greater than 5 gp, you make progress every day in 25 gp increments until you reach the market value of the item.

Practicing a Profession

You can work between adventures, allowing you to maintain a modest lifestyle without having to pay 1 gp per day. This benefit lasts as long as you continue to practice your profession.

If you are a member of an organization that can provide gainful employment, such as a temple or a thieves’ guild, you earn enough to support a comfortable lifestyle instead.

If you have proficiency in the Performance skill and put your performance skill to use during your downtime, you earn enough to support a wealthy lifestyle instead.

Researching

The time between adventures is a great chance to perform research, gaining insight into mysteries that have unfurled over the course of the campaign.

Research can include poring over dusty tomes and crumbling scrolls in a library or buying drinks for the locals to pry rumors and gossip from their lips.

When you begin your research, the GM determines whether the information is available, how many days of downtime it will take to find it, and whether there are any restrictions on your research (such as needing to seek out a specific individual, tome, or location). The GM might also require you to make one or more ability checks, such as a Perception (Investigation) check to find clues pointing toward the information you seek, or a Charisma (Persuasion) check to secure someone’s aid. Once those conditions are met, you learn the information if it is available.

For each day of research, you must spend 1 gp to cover your expenses. This cost is in addition to your normal lifestyle expenses.

Training

You can spend time between adventures learning a new language or training with a set of tools. Your GM might allow additional training options.

First, you must find an instructor willing to teach you. The GM determines how long it takes, and whether one or more ability checks are required.

The training lasts for 250 days and costs 1 sp per day. After you spend the requisite amount of time and money, you learn the new language or gain proficiency with the new tool.