GENERAL RULES

Dungeon Generation:

   Many rules and spells in this website are designed for pre-generated dungeons. The reason for this is that I've practically always played in such levels (my DM would have more fun controlling a dungeon he knew completely). I didn't like at all the random dungeon generation tables that are found in the rulebook, so with time I am going to try to create a system that gives a little more character to random dungeons.

NEW Dungeon Counters:

    I have eliminated certain dungeon counters that I did not find interesting or that would interfere with some new rule, and I have created new counters. The final result is that I use the following counters

Wandering Monsters This counter has the same effects as both "Wandering monster" and "Ambush" old counters. It may be used during a combat phase to add a group of monsters to the one fighting, or during an exploration phase to create a group of monsters and make a combat start.
Flee Acts exactly as the original "Flee" counter, but you must take all these counters out of your "counter box" if you are not planning to use Character monsters.
Character monster Acts exactly as the original "Character" counter, but you must take all these counters out of your "counter box" if you are not planning to use Character monsters.
Fate Point In the same way as the original counter it may be used exactly in the same way as a normal fate point and is really very useful
Dispel This counter may be played at any time when a hero is casting a spell. It immediately and automatically cancels the spell as if it was not cast. In the case of spells that remain in play for many turns, this counter may be used even in following turns to dispel the spell.
Surprise This most useful counter may be used when a surprise is being rolled. If one of these counters is used the monsters are at +2 to their surprise roll (in addition to any sentry or other special rule).

I also thought it would be very characterful if some races of monsters had some additional counters unique to them, but these are detailed in the Bestiary section. The DM must feel free to pick extra Dungeon Counters in particular situations where the monsters would be particularly well prepared. If the heroes stay for too long someplace, if they make an unreasonable amount of noise, if a character monster manages to flee, if the heroes enter a really well defended area (such as the room of the leader) or in many other situations an extra counter should be picked.

General skills:

    Everywhere in the Hero section the hero tables have six "new" abilities, called General skills. These are:

  1. Surprise: Is the bonus that hero gains on surprise rolls. When a group of heroes is opening a door only the highest surprise bonus applies (do not add the bonuses together unless specified otherwise). This value is usually +0 or +1, but on rare occasions may become a +2.
  2. Lockpicking: Is described below and helps in dealing with locks.
  3. Discover trap: Is the bonus the hero gets on his dice roll when he chooses to search for traps. Note that this ability reflects the perception and sixth sense of the hero and is also used when searching for secret or hidden doors. On a roll of a natural 12 this skill is permanently increased by one. This skill is also used to discover secret doors and such.
  4. Deactivate trap: Is the bonus the hero gets on his dice roll to deactivate a trap. Again on a roll of a natural 12 this skill is permanently increased by one.
  5. Magic Resistance: This new ability reflects the resistance of the hero to hostile magic. Dwarfs start with a magic resistance of 12+. This means that any time an enemy casts a spell on them if they successfully roll a 12 the spell has no effects. Some spells, magic items and such will increase someone's magic resistance by a certain amount. A ring that increases one's magic resistance by +2 will confer a magic resistance of 11+ if the wearer had no magic resistance at all, 10+ if he already had one of 12+ and so on. Magic resistance may be increased greatly by combining many items that increase it slightly.
  6. Weapon Proficiency: This skill reflects the hero's ability to handle and use weapons. It is described more in detail below.

Lockpicking:

    Locks are a new form of "hazard". When designing a level the DM may put locks on any doors or chests as he wishes. The function of locks is to slow down heroes and may be used in many situations, like at the end of a corridor in which the heroes are chased by some kind of beast. Heroes can unlock locks by rolling a dice and adding their Lockpicking bonus, but they do need a lockpick (see general store or thieves' guild) to do so, and have to be adjacent to the lock. If the result (dice roll + bonus) is above the difficulty rating, the lock is successfully opened. Various locks vary in difficulty but usually require a total score of 7-10 (you may prefer to generate this value randomly rolling a d6+5). If the hero rolls a natural 12 he permanently gains +1 to his lockpicking skill, if he rolls a 1 the lockpick snaps and is discarded.

Weapon Proficiency:

    This is a new ability heroes possess, and it represents their ability to handle weapons that require a particular fighting technique, or that are just harder to use than your conventional sword or club. Each hero starts with a certain level of Weapon Proficiency, depending on his profession (in order, from lowest to highest: Wizard, Scout, Warrior-mage, Thief, Fighter). Each weapon, close combat or ranged has a certain Proficiency level required to use it correctly. Swords, spears and such have a Proficiency of 0 (anyone can use them), while specialist weapons, such as swordbreakers, sabres, claymores and such require a higher Proficiency level. Sometimes in the weapon tables (see the Shops and stores section), after the Proficiency requirement of a weapon, you will see the name of another weapon in brackets. This means that if the weapon is used by someone not skilled enough it will count entirely as the weapon in brackets (a sabre wielded by someone who doesn't fulfill the requirements counts as a sword, a stiletto as a dagger and so on). If n.a. is written after the requirement the weapon cannot be used at all by someone who doesn't have a high enough Weapon Proficiency. This skill may be trained between adventures at a cost of 200gc, in the same way as other attribute training (it may not be trained at the same time with another characteristic). Note that many heroes have distinctive equipment limitations: these apply ABOVE any limitations due to their Proficiency (a Wizard has enough proficiency to use a sword, but his rules state that he is not allowed to use it anyway).