Chaos Realms: The Fight for Humanity Has Begun (2011)

From "Overview" page of website:

Here is a quick overview on some of the things you will encounter while playing Chaos Realms. Most of these will be familiar to role players, although some of the game mechanics may be a little different than you might be used to.

When playing Chaos Realms, you are participating in a dark and dangerous interactive story where players take on the roles of unique characters, called avatars. One player may serve as the Chaos Lord, a combination director, narrator and referee. The Chaos Lord’s role is to describe scenarios, ask the players what their characters want to do and then resolve these situations according to the rules of the game.

Other duties of the CL include setting up each scene, moving the story along, and take on the roles of all the monsters, demons and non-player characters that the player’s avatars encounter during each adventure. It is important that the CL read through all sections of this book so that she may have an idea of where to find things once the horrors begin.

NOTE: The Chaos Lord has the final say in all matters!

All players, other than the CL will take on the role of an avatar – a character you, the other players, and the CL help to create. You create your avatar with the help of the game rules, according to your own vision for the type of character you want to play and according to the adventure presented by the CL.

During game play your character will likely participate in several adventures or quests and as a result will gain experience points for each skill he or she may use which will help him or her to become more skilled.

Each action during game play requires the use of one skill or another, sometimes more than one skill at once. To determine the success or failure of a skill, the player may be required to roll one or more dice, which is determined by the character’s rank in that skill and is rolled against a difficulty rating. Each skill has a predefined difficulty rating, which the player must roll against to successfully use the skill.

For example, Nazron – a genetically enhanced Street Samurai, has Bladed Weapons +3 and a Short Sword with a difficulty rating of 5. This means that during combat, Nazron will be able to roll 3d6 when using a bladed weapon and his short sword requires that he roll at a 5. He rolls 3d6 and gets a 2, 5 and 1, since one of the die is equal to or higher than 5 he can, therefore, use the weapon successfully to slice and dice his opponents.

Magic is used the same as skills, each spell is ranked according to the skill level of the character and has a difficulty rating, which the player must roll against to determine the success or failure of the spell. Some spells are instantaneous, while other spells require complex rituals that may take several combat turns to cast. There are area effects spells, targeted spells and buff spells as well as magical items, such as weapons and armor.

When performing an action you may have to make a dice roll to determine the level of success or failure of said action. Throughout this manual, the rules abbreviate dice rolls with phrases like 3d6+1, which means three six-sided dice plus 1 (which generates a number between 4 and 19). In this method, the first number represent the number of dice to roll (all of which are added up), the number after the “d” lets you know what type of dice to use, and any number after this represents the quantity to be added or subtracted from the result.

This overview will cover some of the basics a playing Chaos Realms. Other sections on this website will expand upon these basic concepts. It is not important to memorize the contents of this section to play the game, as to do so will surely cause madness and insanity. Use this book merely as a reference during play and have fun.

Most dice rolls will be against a Difficulty Check, which determines the difficulty of the action the character wishes to accomplish. To do this, roll all the dice attributed to the relevant skill, add any situational or environmental modifiers and try to get a result that is equal to or greater than the DC of the desired action.

NOTE: Not all actions require a die roll.

Roll dice during combat, or scenarios in which the success of an action may become more difficult. However, if there is a situation in which roll-play can determine the outcome, then dice rolls are not necessary. Also, the Chaos Lord should reward those who rollplay out situations by giving them extra experience points.

When rolling dice to determine the outcome of certain actions you may be required to add or subtract one or more modifiers to your die roll. Modifiers may result from situational circumstances, environmental factors or faulty equipment.

Experience (XP) is gained by the use of skills, defeating opponents and by completing quests. Except for XP earned from completing quests, experience earned go towards the skill in which the character used to earn the experience points. Therefore to become more skilled, you must simply use your skills more. Practice makes perfect.

As mentioned above, you can also earn additional XP by successfully completing missions, quests and campaigns. Each mission, or campaign, has a ranking between 1 and 6 (1 being the easiest and 6 being the most difficult quest imaginable). XP earned by successfully completing quests can be applied to any skill or attribute.

Just as in real life, characters can try to do pretty much anything you can imagine. As long as the action fits the scenario and the CL allows, it can be done.

Characters can accomplish these actions by making ability or skill checks using one or more d6, depending on their skill ranking and adding any attribute, situational or environmental modifiers.