#benjamin paulson

[As a note, I’m planning on delivering Double Die and Little Folk material every week on Thursday.]

Today we will be talking about a variety of subjects, mostly glossing over them until I can expand on each element in their own article. In this particular article, we will be discussing Stats, Skills, Perks, Species and Archetypes in brief detail.

First, stats and skills: When rolling, you roll your stat die and your skill die. Each skill is related to a single stat, though some perks can let you use skills with another stat or vice versa. If you roll doubles, you get a Legend Point. This can be called other things in other settings using Double Die - in Little Folk, Legend Points are called “Whimsy”. The stats in Little Folk are as follows, with their respective skills listed below:

Strength (Str): How strong and tough you are.

-Brawl: Prowess in melee combat.

-Endurance: Your physical fortitude; also informs your health.

-Brawn: Prowess in athletic actions

-Armor Training: What strength of armor you can use (more on this later)

-Summer Magic: Ability to use Summer Magic

Agility (Agi): How quick and dexterous you are.

-Ranged: Prowess in ranged combat

-Dodge: Ability to avoid most basic attacks along with reflexes

-Nimble: Sleight of hand, nimbleness of fingers, and general sneakiness

-Fleet: Speed, acrobatic ability and, when available, skill at flight

-Fall Magic: Ability to use Fall Magic

Spirit (Spi): How much willpower and common sense you have. Also a measure of your connection to nature.

-Willpower: Your mental fortitude; also informs your health.

-Perception: Ability to notice things.

-Commune: Ability to survive and interact with nature.

-Pathfinding: Ability to find one’s way or use mounts

-Spring Magic: Ability to use Spring Magic.

Intellect (Int): How smart you are, especially in regards to the human world and human objects.

-Fae Lore: Knowledge of Fae Things and Nature

-Human Lore: Knowledge of Human society

-Craftsmanship: Ability to create and fix things

-Medicine: Knowledge of the body and ability to fix it

-Winter Magic: Ability to use Winter Magic.

Social (Soc): How charismatic and socially adept you are.

-Persuasion: Ability to persuade people using upright means

-Deceive: Ability to fool people and to lie

-Browbeat: Ability to intimidate people or mock them

-Empathy: Ability to figure out someone’s true intentions

-Courtly Magic: Ability to use Courtly Magic.

All stats and skills start always use at least d4s, except for the five magics which are assumed to take a ‘d0’, and are therefore unusable unless the player has invested in them.

Species can cover a variety of things in Double Die games, though they should in general give a bonus to a Stat and maybe a Skill, along with a unique perk. Species in Little Folk is referred to as Kith. Kiths give a lot, including powerful bonuses, a unique penalty, a Stat and magic skill upgrade. I’ll reveal each Kith in turn in their own content article. There is one Kith for each Stat as of right now.

Archetypes are extremely variable. At their most basic they give a skill bonus or two and starting equipment. Archetypes in Little Folk give a lot of bonuses to the player and represent their place in Fae court. They can give a lot of skill bonuses, including magic, a stat bonus and perks; you can even gain a specialization to further customize your character. There is an Archetype for each stat and a specialization for each of the 15 possible combinations of two stats as of when I am writing this. I’ll be revealing Archetypes and Specializations in their own articles.

Finally, we come to perks. Perks are passive, triggered or activated abilities, many of which cost Whimsy to use. Basically, anything that isn’t an equipment, a skill or a stat is probably a perk. In Little Folk, some perks are only available by being part of the right Archetype or Specialization, but some are not reliant on those and can be picked up freely if you decide to train them up; there will be more on progression in a future article.

I said I’d start releasing an open source system, and here it is: after some development and playtesting I’ve put together a system that’s free to use and develop from. It’s called the Double Die system, and it’s meant to be decently crunchy, while still allowing the rules to get out of the way for the story. First things first, how to resolve a conflict.

To resolve a conflict, such as when attempting to jump over a gap or spot something far away, players roll two dice, one decided by a stat (d4-d12) and one decided by skill (d4-d12). The GM then rolls a set of matching dice (d4-d20) or the appropriate dice pool of an NPC (d4-d20). Both the the player and the GM add up the dice they rolled. The winner is the person with the higher total result, with the ties going to the player.

For example, Skye wants to move a rock out of the way of a hidden entrance. They roll the dice attached to their Strength stat and the related Brawn skill, a d6 and a d8 respectively. The GM decides the that the rock is heavy, but not overwhelmingly so, and decides to use 2d6 to represent the difficulty of the challenge. Both Skye and and the GM roll their pools, and count up the results. Skye’s total was 7, and the GM’s total was 5. Thus, Skye successful moves the rock.

Resolving vs. NPCs is a bit different. NPC’s don’t use stats and skills like players or doubled dice pools like regular challenge rolls. Instead, they use a general competence die (d4 through d20)  in place of stats for all rolls, and specific competence dice (d4 through d20) in place of skills. This is called a contest.

When no specific competence die is given for an NPC, the GM is encouraged to use their imagination. In general, GMs should not exceed a d8, depending on how competent they are. That said, the unspecified die you come up with should probably not exceed the general competence die, outside of exceptional circumstances.

“Here is an example from the Little Folk setting I’m going to be bringing to you later through this blog. A PC has come to blows with a Fungal Guardian. In this scenario, the PC might have a Strength of d6 and a Endurance of d8, while the Fungal Guardian has a General Competence of d6 and a Use Spore specific competence of d6. Thus, the PC rolls d8+d6, while the GM rolls 2d6 for the Fungal Guardian, resulting in the player’s score being 6 while the Guardian has 9. As a result, the Guardian wins the contest, leaving the PC inhaling the Guardian’s spores. If the PC had instead attempted to convince the Guardian to let him pass, however, he would roll Social + Persuasion, for him d10 + d6. Meanwhile, the GM would rule that the Guardian is not as socially adept as they are at fighting, so it only rolls d6 + d4. The PC would then roll a whooping 14 over the Guardian’s 5, and play would proceed from there.”

Sometimes players or NPCs will have bonuses or penalties. Bonuses and penalties are always 2 through 4, as a flat subtraction or addition to the final results of a dice roll. Positives and negatives cancel each other out, one can only take the largest single bonus and penalty applicable to any given roll.

Skills and Stats are customizable from game to game, but usually you should use 4-5 stats and 4-5 skills per stat, with each stat having the same amount of skills.

benjamin paulson / 20 / he-him  / student, photography major, photographer / soul of patroclus / cameron monaghan

You were raised a catholic by your family, but you became an atheist by choice. The only thing you’ve always believed in is the true beauty of the world. In your eyes, not everyone has a chance of redemption, but still you think kindness is key to navigate through life. Those values are rooted inside your brain, following you everywhere you go. Your parents were always extremely proud of how sensitive and giving you were. It was only when you grew up and finally walked away from religion that they started to worry. The more you read, the more you realised that even though the religious principles were sticking with you, the doctrine wasn’t something you agreed upon at all. Nonetheless, you kept helping and doing volunteer work; but you stopped going to church. Instead, you decided to focus on your passion for beauty, and taking portraits of the fascinating world around you.

you! me! dancing! - los campesinos carmensita - devendra banhart electric blue - arcade fire

Your camera is like an extension of your arm. Whether you have his usual equipment with you or simply your phone, you always seem to find something interesting and beautiful enough to take pictures of. At first you dived into studying photography without thinking too much about the future, but now you’re starting to believe - contrary to your father’s opinion - that you might be able to make a living out of it. You even dared to take part on a contest to win a scholarship in one of the most famous art schools in Italy. A month ago they e-mailed you saying that you’ve got a strong possibility to win. This is the first time anyone has acknowledged your talent like this, and the whole thing seems like a dream come true. However, you’re not so sure about the reaction your parents are going to have to the big news. Talking to them has never been easy, but you know you need to try this time. You’re not going to waste your dream away. 

Cormac Newman: Childhood friend, neighbour, in love with

Noah Upton, Iwan Turner: Best friends

Amadeus Minett: Confidant, shared interests

Harvey Parrish: Looks up to

Nina Campbell: Gets along well, takes photos for publicity