4th Earth RAW: Vanilla

Version: 0.1.1

4th Earth RAW: Vanilla is designed to provide a minimal setup for Players to create Characters and stories in the spirit of 4th Earth RAW.

If you want to expand these mechanics and aren’t sure where to start, we RECOMMEND looking at the official add-on implementations known as Sprinkles.

The vanilla implementation is designed to facilitate solo-adventuring. However, the vanilla implementation MAY be used with groups, with or without a Narrator acting as facilitator and increasing story dynamism.

• The health Life Battery MUST NOT be used to reduce the Difficulty Rating.
• If using non-health Life Batteries:
  • Difficulty MAY be reduced by spending Life Battery points; 1 Difficulty Rating for each Target Action Battery point spent.
  • Difficulty Ratings SHOULD target one non-health battery. For example:
    • Injury and healing Actions SHOULD affect the health Battery.
    • Physical Actions SHOULD predominately affect the physical Battery.
    • Mentally taxing Actions SHOULD predominately affect the mental Battery.
    • Magic and similar actions SHOULD predominately affect the spiritual Battery.
• Difficulty MAY be increased or decreased by negotiating with the Narrator, if applicable.

• All Characters MUST decide what they will attempt to do.
• All Actions MUST be given a Difficulty Rating.
• All Players MUST modify the Difficulty Rating, build their Dice Pools, and roll at the same time.
• Character Actions SHOULD be narratively resolved starting with the Dice Pools containing the most ones.
  • Ties between Antagonist and Protagonist Characters SHOULD go to the Character with more dice in their Dice Pool.
• Character Actions MAY be negated as a result of Action resolution.

The following apply to Character Actions where the target of the Action is another Character who is contesting the Action; if the Action isn’t contested, the Difficulty Rating MUST be 0.

• There MUST be a Protagonist and an Antagonist; the Protagonist Player Rolls the Dice Pool.
• If the Antagonist is subdued, the Difficulty Rating MUST be 0.
  • The Initial Difficulty Rating, unless subdued, SHOULD BE at least the number of Proficiency Ranks the Antagonist has in the same Action Types and Tools used by the Protagonist; including parent Action Types.
• For physically aggressive Actions:
  • Difficulty Rating MUST represent difficulty to hit the Antagonist; this includes grappling, holding, or restraining the Antagonist.
  • Difficulty Rating SHOULD be calculated using the Antagonist Difficulty Rating below.
  • Damage SHOULD be calculated using the Protagonist Potential Energy below.
  • Grappling, holding, or restraining MUST NOT cause damage to the Antagonist.
    • If the Antagonist is restrained in some way, attempting to escape MUST result in the Antagonist becoming the Protagonist; SHOULD happen on the Antagonist’s turn, if using turn-based gameplay.
• The Initial Difficulty Rating MAY be reduced by 1, if performing an Action using a specialty and having mastered the parent Action Type (three ranks).

Antagonist Difficulty Rating

The following describes a method for calculating the Difficulty Rating of an Antagonist.

• Start from the Initial Difficulty Rating defined above.
• If the Antagonist views the Protagonist’s Action as aggressive and the Antagonist is aware of the aggressive action, the Difficulty Rating MUST be increased by 1.

Protagonist Potential Energy

The following table describes a method for calculating the Potential Energy (damage) of an attack, which determines how many health Battery Points will be lost, if the attack is successful.

• Physical damage MUST target the health Life Battery.
• Verbal, advanced technology, or magic attacks MAY impact non-health Life Batteries and SHOULD be a known quality or attribute of the Action Type, Tool, or spell.
• Slow Actions MUST be limited to once per Turn or Round.
• Fast Actions MAY be performed twice by the Protagonist in a Turn or Round.
  • If the Fast Action is performed twice, the Difficulty Rating MUST be divided by 2 and split evenly between the two Actions; if performing once, the Difficulty Rating MUST NOT be split.
    • If the Fast Action is performed twice and the Difficulty Rating is odd, the Player MUST round up the first and round down the second Difficulty Rating.
    • If using non-health Life Batteries, Players MAY spend non-health Life Battery Points to reduce the Difficulty Ratings individually; as if they were two, separate Actions.
• Potential Energy MAY be reduced mechanically (see Resistance Sprinkle), or, through negotiation and narrative convenience (incapacitate instead of kill, for example).

See Sprinkles.

• Proficiency Points MUST be applied to an Action Type, Specialty, or Tool related to the Action performed. (For example, using a knife to cut bread results in a Proficiency Point being earned. That point can be applied to a cooking Action Type, to the edged Tool, or both, however, the Proficiency Point MUST NOT be applied to a spell casting Action Type, if applicable.) We RECOMMEND:
  • 2 Proficiency Points earned on success,
  • 1 point earned on failure, and
  • 0 points earned for Actions with Difficulty Rating of 0; even if the Initial Difficulty Rating was greater than 0.
• Action Types and Specialties SHOULD be determined by Players as Characters interact with the Setting and other Characters; reduces pre-setup and starts game play in the most open and freeform condition.
  • Action Types SHOULD represent a general proficiency and the child SHOULD represent a Specialty.
  • The specialty SHOULD be a specific Action Type, not a combination. (For example, a preparing food Action Type MAY have a Specialty of baking. Further, a master of unarmed combat MAY have a Specialty in a jab but not in kung fu.)
  • Each Action Type MAY have one or more Specialties; however, Specialties MUST NOT have deeper Specialities.
  • Players MAY determine parent-child relationships among Action Types and Specialties.
  • The Action Type MUST be mastered before Proficiency Points are earned toward a Specialty.
    • If an Action Type is later determined to be a Specialty, we RECOMMEND moving the achieved Proficiency Points and Ranks to the parent Action Type and re-building ranks in the Specialty.
  • Characters MAY have different Action Types and Specialties, however, similar Actions performed by different Characters SHOULD use the same named Action Type and Specialty to minimize complexity. Note: Naming things is hard.
• Tools SHOULD NOT be tiered.

• Each Battery MUST have 8 Battery Points.
• Each Character MUST have at least 1 Battery named, health.
  • We RECOMMEND 3 additional non-health Batteries named, physical, mental, and spiritual.
• Characters SHOULD be considered deceased (or incapacitated) when their health Battery reaches 0.
  • If using non-health Batteries, Characters SHOULD be considered deceased (or incapacitated) when all Life Batteries are at 0.
• Characters may recharge their health Battery by using items, resting, or transferring Battery Points as described below.
  • If using non-health Batteries, any Character-initiated recharging Action SHOULD recharge all Batteries, including health, at least 1 point per unit of Character Time. We RECOMMEND the following recharging Actions and primary Batteries affected per unit of Character Time:
    • Rest (short): Health Battery, 2 points.
    • Nap (medium): Physical Battery, 3 points.
    • Sleep (long): Physical Battery, 4 points.
    • Meditate (short): Mental Battery, 3 points.
    • Pray (short): Spirit Battery, 3 points.
• Recharging Actions MAY have a Difficulty Rating.
• Life Batteries MAY be used to recharge other Batteries.
  • The health battery MUST NOT be used to recharge any other Life Batteries.
  • To recharge 1 Battery Point to the health Battery, Players MUST spend Battery Points equal to the number of non-health Life Batteries to recharge 1 point to the health Battery. (For example, 3 non-health batteries means 2 points from spiritual and 1 point from physical MAY recharge 1 point to health.)
  • To recharge 1 Battery Point to a non-health Battery, Players MUST spend Battery Points equal to the number of non-health Batteries minus 1 (the target). (For example, if there are 3 non-health Life Batteries, 2 points from spiritual MAY recharge 1 point to physical; or, 1 point from spiritual and 1 point from mental MAY recharge 1 point to physical.)

Vanilla Character Sheet

Vanilla Socail Contract

Antagonist

The Character impacted by a contested Action of another Character.

Specialty

A refined Action Type, which has a more generic parent Action Type; does not apply to Tools.

All Specialties are Action Types, but not all Action Types are Specialties.

Protagonist

The Character performing an Action in a contested Action.

Target Action Battery

The Life Battery targeted by an Action.

Target Action Battery Point

The Battery Points for a Target Action Battery.