James Hutchings presents

 

 

 

 

 

The All-Seeing Eye uses two kinds of dice: ordinary, six-sided dice (d6s), and twenty-sided dice (d20s).

 

This document assumes you know the meaning of GM, ‘character’, ‘player character’, and ‘non-player character.’

 

 

 

There are five Qualities: Courage, Intelligence, Charisma, Agility, and Strength.

 

Roll a d6 for each Quality in turn, and add 7 to the result. Each Quality will thus begin with a score in the range 8-13.

 

If you roll at least three ones, you may start again and re-roll all five Qualities.

 

Player characters who survive will increase their Qualities. However the usual maximum score for any Quality is 20 (a Quality may temporarily go over this amount by magical means).

 

 

 

There are five classes: Adventurers, Warriors, Magicians, Elves, and Dwarves.

 

Any character can be an Adventurer. The other four classes have minimum ability scores, as follows:

 

Warriors: Courage 12, Strength 12

 

Magicians: Intelligence 12, Charisma 12

 

Elves: Intelligence 12, Agility 12

 

Dwarves: Agility 12, Strength 12

 

The abilities of the different classes are dealt with in detail in the relevant sections. However, briefly;

 

Adventurers are the most common class. They are mostly good at fighting, but not to the extent that Warriors are.

 

Warriors are specialists in combat. They have the ability to use weapons and armour that no other class can use.

 

Magicians are extremely weak in combat, but can use magic.

 

Elves are a kind of half-and-half class. They’re able to use some spells, but also have some skill in combat. They also have a much stronger sense of smell than other classes.

 

Dwarves are unusually tough. They have trouble using larger weapons because of their small size. However they are particularly skilled in using the battle-axe. They have a unique ability to sense if treasure and secret doors are nearby. They also have an advantage when facing opponents with bows or other ranged weapons: their small size makes them harder to hit.

 

Both Adventurers and Dwarves may eventually become Warriors.

 

 

 

Their starting value depends on the character’s class:

 

Adventurers: 30

 

Warriors: 30

 

Magicians: 20

 

Elves: 25

 

Dwarves: 35

 

 

 

Elves: 25

 

Magicians: 30

 

The other three classes have 0 Astral Energy Points.

 

 

 

These are equivalent to Experience Points, and begin at zero.

 

 

 

This starts at 1.

 

 

 

Roll a d6, add 6, and multiply by 10. The character will start with this many silver coins (always in the range 70 to 120).

 

Silver coins are the main currency, but there are others:

 

1 gold coin = 10 silver coins = 100 bronze coins = 1000 copper coins

 

 

 

Attack begins with a value of 10.

 

Defence begins with a value of 8.

 

If the character has an Agility of 13, they can raise their Attack or their Defence by one point.

 

If the character has an Agility of 8, they must lower their Attack or their Defence by one point.

 

 

 

The player character should then use their coins to buy equipment: weapons, armour, and other useful items such as boots and blankets.

 

 

Weight is measured in ‘coins’. An actual coin, unsurprisingly, weighs 1 coin (regardless of what kind of coin it is). A character can comfortably carry a total weight of no more than their Strength x 100 coins. If a character has more than that, they can’t run or jump, must rest frequently, and will walk at a much slower pace. The actual maximum weight that a character can carry for short distances is left to the GM.

 

The GM may allow characters to haggle. If so, the character Tests their Charisma (see ‘Testing Qualities’), and adjusts prices accordingly. The GM should apply a minimum of 20% reduction on listed prices, or a maximum increase of 10%.

 

The GM may say that each character has to buy a set of clothes, which costs 20 silver coins and weighs 80 coins.

 

However if the GM and players want to go into more detail, they can use the following table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Agility Penalty’: the heavier types of armour force the character wearing them to lower their Agility by the amount shown. This will be relevant if the character has to ‘Test their Agility’ (explained in ‘Testing Qualities’). It may also affect the character’s Attack and Defence scores: an Agility of 8 or less means that the character has a penalty of -1 on either their Attack or Defence, and an Agility of 13 or more means that a character has a bonus of +1 on either their Attack or Defence. So, for example, a character with Agility of 9 would normally have no bonus or penalty – but if they were wearing a chainmail shirt, their Agility would be lowered to 8, giving them a penalty.

 

The Agility penalty doesn’t apply to whether a character can be a member of a particular class. For example, a character with an Agility of 12 is entitled to choose the Elf class. If that character wears a scale-mail shirt their Agility will go down to 11 – however they’re still entitled to be an Elf. In this case only, the character’s starting Agility is used, not their Agility after applying the Agility Penalty.

 

Obviously, if the character takes off their armour they then use their normal Agility.

 

Normal clothing has a Protection of 1. In hot climates, or when doing heavy work, people may wear clothing which gives no Protection.

 

The bonus for clothing doesn’t add on to the bonus for armour. For example, a character who’s wearing a chainmail shirt, which has Protection of 4, can’t say that “I’m wearing normal clothing as well so I should get Protection of 5.”

 

Note that, when creating a new character, they will never have enough money to buy better armour than a leather vest.

 

 

Characters can’t fight with two weapons at a time. They can fight while holding a torch or using a shield (unless of course their weapon is one which they have to hold in two hands).

 

Magicians always start with a magic wand. This is a staff of elm or oak, about 1.6 metres, or 5 feet 10 inches, long. This has no cost. It may be used as a weapon – treat it as a club, except that it isn’t breakable. Magic wands have a ‘level’, similar to characters. A wand starts at level 1. Increasing a wand’s level, and the benefits of doing so, are covered in the section ‘In Between Adventures’.

 

 

note 1: If a Dwarf uses a Longsword or Battle-axe, they must hold it with two hands. This means they can’t carry a torch, use a shield etc.

 

note 2: If a Warrior uses one of these weapons, they must hold it with two hands. This means they can’t carry a torch, use a shield etc. No other character may use these weapons at all.

 

A flensing knife is a knife designed to gut fish. Kitchen knives, daggers and flensing knives are all about the same length.

 

A sabre is about the same length as a sword, but thinner and curved, with a guard (a curve of metal which protects the hand).

 

A hatchet is a small, one-bladed hand axe which is mainly designed to cut wood. A battle-axe is much bigger, has two blades, and is designed as a weapon. An executioner’s axe is a bigger version of the same thing.

 

 

 

Spears require only 1 hand to use, and so may be used with a shield. The other weapons in this table require both hands.

 

Shortbows and longbows use arrows. 20 arrows cost 2 silver coins, and weigh 50 coins. Characters may be assumed to have a quiver to carry the arrows in.

 

Crossbows use bolts, which are much shorter than arrows. Crossbow bolts can’t be used in bows, nor arrows in crossbows. 20 bolts cost 4 silver coins, and weigh 80 coins.

 

All these weapons can be used by any character except Magicians.

 

 

Both these weapons require only one hand, and so can be used with a shield.