Handbook
===

[toc]

# Introduction

DreamScape is a traditional table-top role-playing game (TTRPG). Hence to play the game you need two kinds of participants. The first are the actual players, who play a character of their own and interact with the world of the campaign, a storyline, through their character. Then comes the Game Master (GM) who's in charge of running the campaign and directs everything that is not a playable character. This includes natural events (ex: earthquake), non-playable characters (NPC) and more. Their goal is to make the party, the group of players, progress in the story by making the world as a whole react to the players action. They can also take initiatives to and create events which did not stem from players' actions, so as to make the world more believable, lively and the campaign challenging.

    As stated above the players interact with the world through their characters. But since their characters only have a description sheet for a physical representation, they must bring their characters to life through their imagination. This also means that the interactions with the campaign's world happen in the same way. But a game without rules or limitations would be void of fun. Sure having your freshly-built character suddenly create mountain-shattering spells can be fun, but only for a short while. Hence the stats system: each character, playable or not, is defined among other things by their stats. These define the capabilities of your character. However they're not simple thresholds that create a dichotomy between what you can and can't do. Just like a professional may miss the basket once in a while, a newbie may get a lucky shot. Nonetheless the athlete has much better odds of success. In DreamScape this uncertainty is created through dice rolls. You want to burst the door open by kicking it? Fine. Roll a dice to which you'll add your strength stat; if the sum of the two reach a certain threshold, you'll succeed. The threshold and the consequences for failing are the GM's job to figure out.

    Players should rest assured though, a GM's goal is their players' enjoyment so unfair consequences are usually avoided. Feel free to try what goes through your mind, be it for fun, strategy, role-playing etc. Any reason is valid if it's fun to you and your party! Just state or explain what you want your character to do and the GM will tell you what rolls to make, if any, and describe how the world was affected by your choice. The GM may be your worst enemy as they're technically the overlord of all your enemies. But they're also your best friend and you should ask them questions to reap those benefits! What's the room like? Which metal is this handle made of? Is this goblin attracted to me? How do I play?

# Characters

As the name indicates a TTRPG is all about playing a role, that is, the role of your character. The later is defined both by its personality and its capabilities. The personality is often greatly driven by the backstory of the character, which is its life prior to being played. After all a newborn wouldn't make for a very interesting gameplay, unless your favorite game is [rock simulator](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1187510/Rock_Simulator/). But the personality of your character is really up to you and is not constrained by rules. Just keep in mind that eccentric characters aren't necessarily the most fun to play. Also, if you're about to start the main campaign, you don't need a backstory at all.

## Stats

The stats are the main characteristics of your character and are used to determine the success of pretty much all the actions you undertake. As the founding block of your character's capabilities they'll shape the path it undergoes and the abilities it will acquire.

    Stats can be divided in three categories: the universal shared by all beings; the special, obtained through peculiar circumstances; the derived, an algebraic combination of others.

### Universal

The universal stats amount to four and can be improved through leveling up.

    **Strength**, abbreviated as **STR**, is the most straightforward of them all. It determines the physical power as well as its constitution. The higher your strength the more resilient you'll be to flesh wounds, poison, etc. More importantly it'll affect the amount of damage you can deal with melee weapons such as swords, bows, fists, etc.

    **Accuracy**, abbreviated as **ACU**, is the second physical stat. It expressed how agile a character is and thus determines their speed and evasion rate. It also improves the chances of hitting critical points of enemies, thus dealing more damage. This is especially true with ranged weapons which have a much higher chance of missing than close-ranged ones.

    **Perception**, abbreviated as **PER**, is the acuity of a character. This improves your chances of spotting hidden or concealed items, shortens the time you need to take in a battlefield, and increases your empathy to some extent. But it's also the cornerstone of magic. This stat determines how much mana, magical energy, you can hold and wield.

    **Cognition**, abbreviated as **COG**, is the raw brain power. A character with high COG may be too foolish to realize that jumping down a cliff is deadly, or too uneducated to read the sign reading danger but they'll have the capability to calculate exactly how long the rations will last the party with a glance. Assuming they have the knowledge of how much food one east. COG alone is useless but coupled with knowledge and critical thinking it can be the sharpest of tools. As such it's a crucial when designing or casting spells, a complex field.

### Derived

Derived stats are barely stats, and mostly shorthands for when an action's success depends in multiple other stats. The most common difference is the gauge many of them have. Take **HP** and **MP**, respectively hit points, your health, and mana points, your mana pool or the amount of mana at your disposal. Their maximum is defined by the values of the universal stats but their current value varies independently. If you just got cut by a foe, your current HP will be lower than the maximum.

    The aforementioned stats have their maximum set to:

- $MP = 2 \times PER +COG$

- $HP = 2\times STR + ACU$

### Special

There isn't much to say about the special stats, after all not much is known of them. They're acquired through exceptional circumstances and work in peculiar ways. Most of them also can't be increased through leveling up and instead require special conditions. Thus some may have small values, like **luck**, or sky-rocketing numbers, like **faith**. Some of them can also be detrimental to the character and perceived as curses. Nonetheless most bestow unique benefits to the characters. The two most common ones are described thereafter.

    A stark example of special stat is **devotion** (**DVO**) which is possessed by all paladins and priests. The greater their faith and deeds for their gods, the higher the stat. In return they're bestowed greater power from their god which may lend their power to their followers. This can be a game-changer and bring about true miracles.

    A more subvert but omnipresent example is **luck** (**LUK**). This stat is attributed upon character creation. The higher the luck, the kinder the world will be on you. In practice it gives a limited number of chances to re-roll dices. More on this in the character creation section.

## Archetypes

Unlike most mainstream TTRPGs like D&D and Pathfinder, DreamScape is loose about its concept of classes, hence the choice of calling them "archetypes". In fact they're truly more of guidelines than paths; categories with a host of not-so-special cases briding them together. Think Vien diagrams, both in terms of stat distribution, role and gameplay. The whole point behind these archetypes is giving players, and GMs alike, hints and advices one how to make viable characters. If you feel confident with the rules and workings of the RPG, feel free to steer free of the ensuing classes.

### Warriors
Archetypes can be broadly split into two categories: those that use physical means to produce effects and those who use magic. In this section we cover those of the first category.

#### Brawler

Brawlers are always in the frontline, but their roles still vary somewhat. When some are meatloafs tanking the hits to protect their comrades others prefer to display their mastery of the blade to repel foes and cut as many heads as possible.

All brawlers should invest heavily in STR for its the main stat used by melee weapons to deal damage and it raises one's constitution. If you want to display fine swordmanship, you must remember to alocate a fair share to ACU. In the later stages you should think about donating a few points to COG in order to use artifacts that draw on your mana.

#### Marksman
Marksmen differ by the weapons they use: bows, crossbows, javelins, etc… Regardless of their weapon of choice they roughly have the same role: deal a lot of damage from a safe distance. Often forming the second line behind the brawlers, ranged attackers focus on picking out remote leaders and dealing huge blows to bosses. But beware, reloading their weapons puts them at their weakest and provides a window of opportunity for any ill intention.

Since most ranged weapons depend on ACU it should be the most cherished attribute of ranged warriors. Just after comes strength and if you have spare points throw them at PER to better assess the battlefield.

#### Assassin
Assassins melt in the shadows, being no more than afterimages… Or so they wish! Most assassins are not on that level, especially not new ones. So outside of fights they must pretend to be but normal citizens or adventurers. However during combat they push themselves to their limits. Avoiding their foes’ sight to backstab them. If they can appear to be dead weights they’re can also be turning points in battle. To shine they must think long and hard about what to do and at the opportune moment: release their deadly skills to end any skirmish before it even began. Those who fail to do so are often met with a dire end.

Jacks of all trades assassins are reliant on their ability to move and should thus be very acurate. But that alone is not enough to kill so they should invest in strength.

### Spellcasters

Spellcasters are sometimes dubbed magic-wielders. Indeed mana is turned into effects, a process called magic, through spells. For more information on that peruse the Combat section or the rulebook if you're a GM.

#### Wizard
At its core being a wizard is being an academician. Most wizards aren't natural-born magic wielders. Instead they go through rigorous training and education of magic and its inner workings, learning shapes after shape. Their most dire defficiency is their relatively poor grasp of mana. Low on PER compared to their sorcerer counterpart, they make for it with higher understanding and larger range of spells to choose from.
This need for better thought-out use of mana implied better mental aptitudes, hence the high COG. In turns this gives them the ability to fine-tune spells by adding small variations to shapes and spells on the fly.
In the end wizards make up for their lower mana capacity and manipulation capabilities by their flexibility and variety.

#### Sorcerer
Sorcerers are the "original" magic-wielders. Their high magic magic perception allows them to tap into mana almost intuitively all the while giving them access to vast mana pools. These characteristics allow sorcerers to gow wild and cast large and expensive spells haphazardly, even at a distance.
They're also very good at interfering with other's magic by highjacking mana flows, thus disrupting mana constructs.
In order for this all to be possible, a sorcerer must have sky-high perception but shouldn't neglect COG without which they won't be able to turn their vast mana reserves into anything useful.

### Devout

Albeit the devout could fall under the archetypes of warriors and spellcasters their methods and thus playstyle set them apart. At their core, the devout are pious. They fight for the glory of their god and sometimes church. But they’re not all selfless, indeed they receive godly powers from their deeds. By fulfilling their gods’ plans they are bestowed with aptitudes and skills enabling them to grow stronger. These blessings are often giving during a mission to assert its success.

In practice their importance within their ranks is determined by the score of their faith (FTH). Almost a currency this attribute is gained by completing missions and praying and spent on pleas for power and help. Players of devout classes must always keep a close eye on their faith economy.

As for the actual classes, there are two: paladins and priests. The former is a devout warrior whereas the second is more like a sorcerer. To create such characters you can refer to their atheist counterparts.

## Making your character

:::warning
Work in progress
:::
Your character is your only means of interacting with the world you're exploring. Thus you should take your time making your character to ensure enduring fun.
When making a character for yourself you ought to consider how you want to play to understand what you want to play. This includes but is not limited to your role within the party, how your would-be abilities are played and of course what you find cool and fun. Some prefer to play a meatloaf that goes headfirst into the throng while others may wish to take a more calculative approach by carefully rationning their ressources to yield maximum efficiency.

## Progress

Venturing entails dangers, obstacles and hard choices. At times overcoming these changes someone, other times someone needs to change to get through the hardships. These, if overcome, changes someone in various ways. Psychological changes are left to the players' and should reflect the hardships their characters go through. Albeit judging in what manner and extent is at the core of "role-playing", other changes are more strictly directed by the rules.
All characters, played or not, are afflicted with a figure named "level", an integer representing the grade of power accessible to the character. Obviously a lower-level character can beat a higher-level opponent, even alone. But such a feat gets harder and harder as the gap widens. Indeed, with each gained level, a character is awarded 2 *stat points* which can be invested into universal stats, as well as some special stats. Such a power-up is one of the most powerful. Since virtually eveything depends on these four values, increasing them initiates a chain reaction that empowers skills, equipement efficiency and spells. Moreover a character keeps on gaining abilities as they progress through their ventures, so the impact of gaining one stat is greater at higher levels than at the beginning. If the only change in getting one more STR is to do 1 more damage with a sword is typical at low-levels. The same gain is drastic at higher levels where it may boost tens of abilities by 10% or more.

# Combat
Though combat is but a part of a TTRPG it is no small one. Fights are bound to happen to any budding adventurer if they want to spread justice upon the world... or serve their own slefish interests. Regardless, meddling with the world's affair is bound to create troubles, which may be solved through battle.
As such, every archetype is battle-ready and able to provide significant contributions to any party's armed struggle. However the manner in which this contribution is expressed is like day and night from one character to another. As such a party should balance their composition to prevail against as many foes as possible.
The combat abilities of a character isn't directly spelled out by their archetypes or stats. Instead their damage-dealing means come from either their equipement or their spells, though some may overwhelm anything through their skills and stats alone. Regardless players should give great care to their weapons and spells sets.

## Onset

First of all combats are encounters and as such they imply interactions with NPCs. Moreover if proceedings of the game is not bound by the concept of "turns", the fast-paced nature of combats make it a prime candidate for this system. As such when the DM announces a combat, all players (and NPCs) must roll **initiative**.

With each combat an initiative score is attributed to all participants who are then ordered in decreasing order. The one with the highest initiative will act first, then the second and so on. Once the participant with the lowest initiative finishes their action, the turn is over and the cycle begins anew.

Since initiative rolls are done often, they're quite simple to do! The score can be obtained from the following formula: $d20+(ACU|PER)+2\times LVL$.

## Physical

Physical combat includes every mean of dealing damage that uses a weapon (ex: blade, arrow) or the body (eg: fist fight). Albeit damaging your foe is where the fun is one must first *hit* said opponent before harming them. Hence a physical attack begins with making sure teh strike meets its target.
To do this the attacker makes an acurracy roll. If this value is higher or equal to the weapon used, you continue to the next phase of the attack. Otherwise you failed and csan give up your hopes to damage your enemy.
If you stroke true, the opponent still has the opportunity to to *escape*. For this both attacker and defender roll accuracy. The attacker keeps the higher of their two throws, the first being the one which determined whether they hit. Then if the defender's roll is *strictly* higher than the attacker, they evade, avoiding **all** damage. If they fail to evade though they get the brunt of the attack, and in an unfavorable posture. This means that the attack deals four thirds of its damage.
Finally you apply the damage and effects of the attack, minus all the offsets of the defender, including evasion.

These rules apply for both melee and ranged attacks. Except the later can't be evaded, not unless you breach the limits of human-hood. Projectiles can however be countered and parried still.

## Spells

Before casting away one must first understand what a spell is from the standpoint of the rules. If you've ever seen a spell card, you've surely noticed it comprises several figures as well as a title and description. The later is in fact the *effect* of the spell, the actual magic at play. The figures are: level, complexity and cost.
Level is the "grade" of the spell. Most spells can improve as you use them, especially if in increasingly novel ways. When a spell levels-up its effect generally gets boosted for a minor increase in complexity and cost.
Complexity is where cognition comes into play. On any single turn one's active spells' complexity must remain lower than their COG. If you have a set of spells $(s_i)_i$ for which the complexity is $(c(s_i))_i$, then the following must hold true: $$\sum_i{c(s_i)}\le COG$$
Cost is the amount of mana required to construct the spell before it can be *cast* (aka ignited). Each turn you may invest up to $min(1d8+PER, MP)$ mana into your active spells (those being cast). The distribution of this mana is left to the caster's bet judgement.

With the prerequisites behind us, understand the flow of a magic fight becomes much simpler. At the start of your turn you roll perception. This gives you your mana allowance for the turn (assuming it's lower than your remaining MP, otherwise the later replaces your roll). You may invest any portion of it at any point of your turn. In between these investments you may cast new spells, as long as the total complexity of all the spells you have active remains inferior to your COG. Once you fullfil the mana requirements of a spell by having invested as much mana as its cost, it's ignited, meaning you apply the effect. At any point in your turn you may also apply a modifier (mod) to any of your active spell.
Because most of these steps are unordered and can be split you may very well finish a spell by investing some mana in it, then cast a new one and invest some more mana, before applying a mod to another spell, or the same. Use this freedom of action to your advantage! Smart allocation of COG and mana can turn a defavorable situation into an overwhelming victory.

## Fighting

Most of the time you spend in battle you do in attacking. Though some spells and equipment such as shield allow to prepare for retallation through defense most actions are meant to damage the opponents.

Regardless of the way damage is inflicted (ranged, spells, swords, etc.) the action unfolds in a similar fashion described thereafter.

graph TD;
    id1(Reach target?);
    id2(Evasion attempt?);
    id5(Deal 4/3 damage);
    id6(Deal damage);
    id7(End of attack);
    id8(Succeeds?);

    id1-- no -->id7;
    linkStyle 0 stroke:red;
    id1-- yes -->id2;
    linkStyle 1 stroke:green;

    id2-- yes -->id8;
    linkStyle 2 stroke:green;
    id8-- yes -->id7;
    linkStyle 3 stroke:green;
    id8-- no -->id5;
    linkStyle 4 stroke:red;
    id2-- no -->id6;
    linkStyle 5 stroke:red;
    id6-->id7;
    id5-->id7;

# Equipment