FES: Character Creation, step by step, and Challenges

Roleplay FES
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The Step-by-Step

  1. Pick your proficiency level. It is advised to target +3 to represent a baseline fresh adventurer in other game systems.
  2. Choose your path: Athletics, Expertise, Magic, or Knowledge. You gain advantage in rolls related to challenges your path applies to. Your path determines how you may allocate your hit points. See Table 1.
  3. Choose your abilities: Apply 7, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3 as separate attributes for your ability scores.
  4. Select your aspects. Aspects are four distinct ability scores that represent your capacities and limits. For an explanation, see Table 2.
  5. Choose your traits: 3 separate words that describe what your character can be. You gain advantage in rolls related to challenges any of these traits can apply to. Multiple traits can apply to the same challenge.
  6. [Optional] Gain an extra trait by taking on a flaw. A flaw is a single word similar to a trait that grants disadvantage in rolls related to challenges these traits can apply to. It can be the same as a trait, if a trait has a double-sided nature.
  7. Pick acquisitions out to represent skill proficiencies (allow you to use your proficiency level towards a roll), equipment (any tools that are relevant to your profession without which you would be at a disadvantage), and other abilities that you can do.
  8. [Optional] Pick any traumas you want your character to have.

You can generally follow this outline via the character sheet.

Challenges

A challenge is a roll made by a player that can detail physical or mental consequences. A challenge has a difficulty check (DC) rating determined before the roll. The DC is equal to the challenge’s equivalent total of its relevant proficiency level, its relevant attribute, and the average result of 10 on a 3d6. In general, it’s expected that the average difficulty for a PL 3 character would be 20. To scale difficulty up, make sure you’re differentiating between a circumstantial difficulty vs. an inherent increase in difficulty, as circumstantial difficulties should instead be reflected as a disadvantage in the roll, rather than by changing the DC.

For instance, climbing a vine wall might be a DC 20 check for the average person trained to do so, but climbing a vine wall during a drought might make things harder. Instead of increasing the DC, this should be a disadvantage on the roll.

However, if you’re fighting an opponent face-to-face and they match your fighting style but are better at it, this is probably better represented by increasing the DC.

Damage

When you roll above the DC, the difference is the effective damage you apply to the HP or MP of the challenger (as relevant to the challenge).

Likewise, when you roll below the DC, the difference is the effective damage you take instead.

When a character’s HP or MP reaches 0, they suffer a trauma that applies immediately.

A trauma can be anything from disarming a weapon, to making the character winded, to losing a limb, to losing their mind, unconsciousness, or death. It can even be as simple a condition as “annoyed”. For more details on traumas, see Acquisitions and Traumas.

Running a Challenge

The base dice to roll is 3d6.

  1. Detail out all narrative circumstances as advantages or disadvantages, then subtract the disadvantages from your advantages. This number is your total advantage.
  2. Increase the number of dice you roll by the absolute number of your total advantage.
  3. Decide how much determination points you are going to spend.
  4. Roll the dice.
  5. Add the dice together depending your total advantage:
    • If your total advantage is 0 or higher, add the three highest dice.
    • If your total advantage is less than 0, add the three lowest dice.
  6. If you have an acquisition that grants you proficiency in a challenge, add your proficiency level to the total.
  7. Add the relevant attribute involved in solving the challenge to the total. If multiple ability scores are relevant in the situation, you should probably either just choose the highest one.
  8. Add the amount of determination points you spent on your roll.
  9. Subtract the DC from your total. If the number is positive, you deal damage. If the number is negative, you take damage.

If somehow multiple ability scores are necessarily relevant to a challenge and it doesn’t make sense to only take the highest attribute, you can consider instead running multiple challenges for each attribute.

Challenges for NPCs

If an NPC would undergo a challenge entirely on their own, you can just choose the result narratively. There is no need to roll unless you want to simulate a character as if they were a player, in which case it’s recommended you simply treat the roll as a success on positive and a failure on negative.

If players are involved, instead consider treating the NPC as an acquisition who can grant advantages to the players!

Table 1: Hit point choices

Path Physical hit points Mental hit points
Athletics Highest physical attribute +PL Lowest mental attribute +PL
Expertise Choice 1 Highest physical attribute +PL Lowest mental attribute +PL
Expertise Choice 2 Lowest physical attribute +PL Highest mental attribute +PL
Magic Lowest physical attribute +PL Highest mental attribute +PL
Worldwise Choice 1 Highest physical attribute +PL Lowest mental attribute +PL
Worldwise Choice 2 Lowest physical attribute +PL Highest mental attribute +PL

Table 2: Aspects

Each aspect lists what attribute you can choose, and what an aspect does.

Aspect Attribute Explanation
Strength Any Advantage on any roll using this attribute.
Vulnerability Any Disadvantage on any roll using this attribute.
Defense Physical Attacks targeting this attribute do not suffer disadvantage.
Determination Mental Attacks targeting this attribute do not suffer disadvantage. You gain a pool of determination points equal to this attribute that you can choose to spend on rolls before rolling, which recovers when you suitably rest and recover.