Game System

Many different things can occur on Bloodline. Some are resolved through Skill use or one of the major game mechanics such as combat; others require their own rules.

This chapter provides rules and guidance for a variety of different scenarios that players will encounter while playing Bloodline.

The list is not exhaustive but should represent the most common situations.

If you’re ever unsure, you are encouraged to open a ticket.

I. Character Improvement

Every Bloodline character can improve with time and experience. Improvement can be undertaken in several areas:

Improving existing Skills
Unlocking Professional Skills
Learning new Combat Traits, Spells, Languages

Experience Tokens

The mechanism for most character improvement is the Experience Token. Experience Tokens can be earned in the following ways:

Daily Kit: 1 Experience Token.
Weekly Kit: 1 Experience Token + 2 Experience Tokens per 6 points in Charisma.
Random Encounter Ability: Experience Tokens based on the region / difficulty.
Teach Ability: Characters with the Teach Professional Skill can spend 25 Silver to give a target an Experience Token if they successfully perform a Teach check.
Attending Events: 2-5 Experience Tokens based on the event and the player's interaction.
Generating Roleplay: Hosting tournaments, feasts, gatherings, each handled on a case-by-case basis.
Bug Reports: Each handled on a case-by-case basis.
Staff Work: Staff are awarded the Experience Tokens they hand out when they run an event.

If you feel you have done great efforts for the server and gone unnoticed, let us know! We love to reward great roleplay.

Improving Existing Skills

Any Skill on the Character Sheet, Standard or Professional, can be increased by spending Experience Tokens.

By using the Improve Skill ability in your abilities menu, a new menu will appear that lets you select which Skill you would like to improve. Skills require different amounts of Experience Tokens to improve based on their current value.

01-50: 1 Experience Tokens per +1
51-75: 4 Experience Tokens per +1
76-90: 8 Experience Tokens per +1
91+: Requires a Mentor/Skill Tome (obtainable through events, limited time vendors, or DMNPCs)

Unlocking Professional Skills

Any locked Professional Skill can be unlocked for the cost of 10 Experience Tokens.

By using the Improve Skill ability in your abilities menu, if you have 10 Experience Tokens in your inventory, you can select to unlock a Professional Skill you do not have.

Learning new Combat Traits, Spells, Languages

Any Combat Trait or Spell (if you are a Mage or Templar) can be unlocked for a specified amount of Experience Tokens, with some requiring other Combat Traits or Spells to be available for unlock as well.

If you wish to learn a new Language, it always requires 25 Experience Tokens and each subsequent language learned requires +5 Experience Tokens.

II. The Blight and You

The taint spread by the Darkspawn corrupts the living.

One of the most feared things which can affect characters is the infecting slash of a Darkspawn, the foul malaise that surrounds them, or a miniscule drop of tainted blood being ingested. There’s nothing quite as unsettling as being struck by an attack that leaves most turned into abominations in hours, if not mere minutes.

For game purposes, when exposed to the taint of the Blight, characters are forced to roll Endurance against the deadly disease with a Formidable difficulty modifier (-40). Failure means your character is subject to Infection, and will be Permanently Killed by the end of the process without intervention. Success means you merely survive the encounter, and with a nasty, shadowy scar.

III. Falling

The amount of damage suffered in a fall depends on the distance of the fall. There is no easy way to quantify or have multi-use abilities for this aspect of play. Because of this, if a character falls 6 or more Tiles in Combat, they are considered to have taken too severe of injuries to continue fighting. No matter the player's current Fatigue, they must use Exit Combat - Defeat, and be considered to have gained fatigue according to the following:

6-8 Tiles = +2 Fatigue stages
9-12 Tiles = +4 Fatigue stages
13 - 16 Tiles = +6 Fatigue stages
17 - 20 Tiles = +8 Fatigue stages
21+ Tiles = Unconscious

IV. Fatigue

Fatigue measures tiredness and its incremental effects. It is used to track many different things, from strenuous activity to the debilitating effects of disease.

The primary way of accruing Fatigue is a Hit Location reaching 0 Hit Points.

Fatigue Levels Table

V. Perma-Kills

Perma-Kills (PKs), Character Kills (CKs), Killing Blows, the end of a character's story.

Perma-Kills can be performed through Killing Blows, an ability that can only be performed against an Unconscious Character who has lost a combat encounter. This ability is not able to be used if the combat encounter has a disparity in numbers (3v1, 5v2, 7v3, 9v4) unless a Perma-Kill ticket has been pre-approved.

Players can always use a Fate Point to counteract a Killing Blow - unless a Perma-Kill ticket has been PRE-approved due to the escalation of force or specific situation at hand. A Perma-Kill ticket CANNOT be made in the moment of defeat in combat, it must be ample time prior and intentional.

When a Killing Blow is performed and not negated, either of the players or any of those involved must make an Admin Other Ticket so it can be logged properly as a Perma Kill.

V. Time

Narrative Time

Sometimes, the Staff team will put out what day it is, how much time has passed since an event, and give future dates to understand where we are on the timeline.

Each IRL day is 3 days of in-game time, the server going through 3 day and night cycles in 24 hours.

Combat Time

A Combat Round represents 5 seconds In Character. They are used to measure short, frenetic bursts of activity.

Skill Time

Skill Time represents a few minutes to a few hours and is used to measure activities that do not require wasted OOC time. Picking a lot might take five IC minutes, whereas observing the patrols made by teams of guards might require several IC hours. Both can be resolved with much less OOC time.

V. Tracking & POIs

POI Formatting

All POIs must follow the presented format.

Do not check Hide placement date.
Set Auto Remove Duration to 3 Days
Give a description.
Add an Inpsection requiring --|| STANDARD SKILLS ||-- with a DC of 1000. Include the following.
- Discord Name
- Current Date
- Conceal Skill Value (if your character wishes to hide their tracks)

POI Types

Roleplay

Flavor, fluff, these are Points of Interest that are not significant, but simply add to the atmosphere of the world. These are typically not able to be tracked if they are more environmental focused, but certain interactions leave room for a player to track the one who put it down. Examples of trackable Roleplay focused POIs is a character's perfume bottle or remnants of a camp site.

Combat

These are mandatory Points of Interest that must be left by those participating in a battle.

The requirements for Combat POIs are:

One POI from the victorious side or individual.
If a victorious group splits up after Combat has resolved, they must leave their own individual POIs.
If a character flees in combat, they must leave their own POI
Combat POI descriptions must give an indication of how many combatants were present, and the result.

Theft & Break Ins

Theft POIs are required whenever an item has been taken without permission, or an area or container has been entered by unauthorized means (such as picking a lock, breaking down a door or climbing a wall)

The requirements for Theft POIs are:

Description of entry method (lockpicking, breaching, climbing)
The item(s) that are missing, if any

Magical

Magical POIs are left in the wake of the use of the Fade, leaving an indication that a Mage was involved, and also serve to provide suitable context for rituals and other long-term magical effects.

The requirements for Magical POIs are:

Description of the spell's immediate effects on other characters or items in the area, such as the increase of difficulty for locks, the prevention of entry of certain races, visible sigils, scrying orbs, etc
The caster's Spellpower.
The type of magic used (Primal, Creation, Entropy...)
The character's Devotion or Invocation value.

Magical POIs are able to be tracked using Devotion.

Tracking Rules

Characters are allowed to Track Points of Interest that can reasonably tie its creator to it. This is always possible with Combat, Theft, and Magical POIs, and is done on a case-by-case basis for Roleplay POIs.

When a POI is placed, its creator is able to put their Conceal Skill value if they wish to prevent themselves from being Tracked more easily.

To investigate, or track, a Point of Interest, a POI Investigation Ticket should be opened in the Discord and a screenshot of the POI sent, along with its location, in the ticket.

The Staff helping resolve the ticket will then ask the player to use the Track ability with one of the following modifiers based on the POI Creator's Conceal Skill:

01-50 or less gives no modifier.
51-75 gives a -10 modifier.
76-90 gives a -20 modifier.
91-95 gives a -30 modifier.
96-100 gives a -40 modifier.

On a success, the POI Creator is contacted by the Staff team and their pathing away from the POI noted along with a significant stopping point. This is then passed on to the POI Investigator.

All tracking must take place within three days, starting from when the POI was placed. If a trackable POI has a placement date greater than 3 days, it should be removed.

If a character being tracked is unavailable during the time in which their tracking would be valid, it is expected that the characters involved with the tracking would make appropriate arrangements to see the tracking completed as quickly as possible.