Game System

This chapter describes the basic rules of the Torang Engine. They explain how adventurers created in the Characters chapter, and all characters in general, can use their skills, cast magic, and otherwise accomplish things in the story.

Time

A roleplaying game is a conversation, where the players and gamemaster discuss and describe what people in the game’s world are doing, thinking, or even feeling. The time that passes in the story is therefore elastic compared to the time that passes around the game table. There are two types of “time” in the game.

Natural Time

In most cases, time in the story advances freely and much faster than in the real world. Days of travel through forested hills and gloomy marshlands are described in a few sentences, a long speech in front of the assembled tribe is summarized in a minute, and the study of an ancient scroll is reduced to a dice roll. The gamemaster and players simply move on to the next scene in the story whenever they feel the current one is done.

When needed, natural time is measured in minutes, hours, days, and so on. Some rules refer to natural time, such as magic rituals taking one hour to complete.

Combat Round

During action scenes, such as combat, the game becomes more structured. A combat round lasts around 10 seconds in the game’s world, although this isn’t meant as a precise measure. During that time, every character involved usually gets to act. While the players may take much longer to decide and resolve what happens, the gamemaster should try and keep things moving as fast as possible. Combat is meant to happen fast, with not much time for thinking!

More information is given about combat in the Encounters chapter.

Ability Rolls

The most common and basic mechanic in the Torang Engine is the Ability Roll. This happens when a character uses an ability in a way that may or may not succeed. An ability may be a characteristic or skill, or one of the abilities from the optional systems such as passions or divine affinities.

This section assumes that the character using their abilities is an adventurer, but gamemaster characters use their abilities in the exact same way. When the text refers to “the adventurer” and “the player”, it also applies to “a gamemaster character” and “the gamemaster”.

Basic Ability Roll

To use an ability, the gamemaster and player should quickly agree on the scope of the ability roll. The player makes it clear what they want to accomplish, and the gamemaster decides which ability fits that goal, and whether it can be reached with a basic ability roll (see also Modifiers and Opposed Rolls). If it isn’t obvious, the gamemaster and player should also quickly mention what’s at stake, and what are the consequences of failing the roll.

When ready, roll a D100 and compare the result to the ability score.

Success

If the percentile dice result is less than or equal to the ability score, or less than or equal to 5, the attempted action succeeds. The player may describe what their adventurer does, and the story resumes from that point. Note that percentile rolls of 96 or above are always failures or fumbles (see Failure and Fumble below).

Critical Success

When the roll is a success (see Success above) but it is also less than or equal to the ability score divided by ten (rounding down), the roll is actually a critical success. A quick way to compute the critical success threshold is to simply drop the last digit from the ability score. Example: with an ability score of 68%, a critical success happens on a roll of 6 or less.

A critical success means that the adventurer accomplished what they wanted to do beyond their expectations. These added benefits are up to the player and gamemaster to decide, based on the situation. It often comes down to the following:

• Time: The action was completed faster than expected.
• Grace: The action was done with better form and technique, which means anyone witnessing it, or its results, may be impressed with the adventurer, at least for a little time.
• Information: The adventurer gets additional information, clues, or insight.
• Advantage: The adventurer gains an unforeseen advantage for their next actions, such as a +20% bonus to their next ability roll (if related and applicable), or some narrative consequence in their favor.
• Effect: The result was a lot more effective than expected. For instance, when attacking, the adventurer may deal much more damage to their opponent (see Spirit Encounters, Social Encounters, and Combat Encounters).

Failure

If the percentile roll is greater than the ability score, or if it is equal or greater to 96, the action is a failure. The adventurer does not accomplish what they wanted to, at least not in the way they thought.

The gamemaster should be careful while handling failed ability rolls. Here are three things to keep in mind:

• One failure is enough: do not pile up multiple negative consequences onto the same failure. The fact that the action did not go as the player wanted is punishment enough for a failed ability roll. Find out what happens next by resuming play.
• Make something happen: a failed ability roll rarely means that nothing happens. If the adventurer fails to jump from one building to another during a rooftop chase, they didn’t just “not jump”. They may have hesitated too long and their pursuant is now here at knife point; or they didn’t jump far enough and have smashed into a street vendor’s stall below, taking damage; or they did jump to the other building, but crashed through the roof tiles and into someone’s home on the top floor.
• Fail forward: make sure that the story can continue, for instance by giving a partial success, or a success at a cost. When studying an ancient tablet regarding a long forgotten local deity, the players should still learn some vague location for its original temple, enough to keep the story going with an expedition there. Failure means the adventurers need to spend more time and resources searching a potentially wild and dangerous area, but it shouldn’t mean the players don’t know where to go next.

Fumble

When the percentile roll is 100, the result is always a fumble, which means that not only did the action fail, it actually failed in one of the worst possible ways. If the ability score is below 80%, a roll of 99 is also always a fumble. If the ability score is below 40%, a roll of 98 is always a fumble.

The gamemaster and players should discuss what are some of the worst things that can happen in the situation, and pick the one they prefer. It often comes down to the following:

• Time: The action takes a lot more time than expected.
• Ridicule: The adventurer stumbled and failed in a such a spectacular way that almost everybody involved has a negative attitude towards the adventurer or the action’s result.
• Information: The adventurer obtains false or misleading information.
• Disadvantage: The unfortunate results of the action create negative circumstances for the adventurer’s next actions, such as a –20% penalty to their next ability roll (if related and applicable), or some narrative consequence in their disfavor.
• Effect: The effect of the action is either disappointingly weak (if it was to be in the adventurer’s favor) or incredibly strong (if it was against the adventurer).

Unlike failures, a fumble can easily lead to a narrative dead-end. A fumble may force the players to completely change their plans, or cause their adventurers to be captured, maimed, or worse.

Experience Checks

When an ability roll is successful, the player may mark an experience check next to that ability if the situation was dramatic enough to warrant it. The gamemaster has final say whether that is the case. On the other hand, if the ability roll was a fumble, the adventurer learned from a monumental mistake, and may also mark an experience check for that ability.

See the Downtime chapter for more information on experience and character improvement.

Skipping Ability Rolls

The gamemaster should only call for an ability rolls if the result of an action is in doubt. This may be because the action is dangerous or accomplished in stressful circumstances. It may alternatively be because it would be interesting for the story to gain some narrative tension at that point.

On the other hand, trying to accomplish something mundane, or something the adventurer has basic knowledge of in normal circumstances, should not require a roll.

Modifiers

Not all situations are the same. Trying to sneak into a noble’s villa by distracting the guards would be easier in a peaceful rural town, and harder in a city where noble families are currently at war against each other. To represent this, ability rolls may get modifiers. A modifier always applies to the ability score, so positive modifiers are advantageous, and negative modifiers are disadvantageous. The gamemaster has final say on what modifier applies, if any.

Modifiers are applied in increments of 20%:

• Easy actions: for every notable advantage the adventurer has, or every facet of the action that seems easy, the gamemaster may give a +20% modifier.
• Difficult actions: for every notable disadvantage the adventurer has, or every facet of the action that seems hard, the gamemaster may give a –20% modifier.

The gamemaster should be lenient giving out +20% modifiers for player creativity when approaching problems. On the other hand, she should be almost equally harsh with –20% modifiers in order to give a proper challenge to the players.

Helping

Other characters may help someone’s ability roll by making an ability roll of their own. The helping characters must be available and in a position to help. Helping must be resolved before the helped character makes their ability roll.

The helping players must pick a skill and justify how it applies to the situation. If the gamemaster agrees, the player makes that skill roll. The main ability modifier receives a modifier based on the helping ability roll result:

Ability Roll	Modifier
Critical Success	+60%
Success	+20%
Failure	–20%
Fumble	–60%

If more than one character is helping, combine all modifiers before making the main ability roll.

If the main adventurer qualifies for an experience check in their ability, any character who helped may choose to gain an experience check in the helping ability or the main ability.

Group Rolls

The gamemaster should try not to ask for the same roll from every player. The typical example for this is asking for Stealth rolls when the party is trying to infiltrate an enemy camp, or an Awareness roll to spot an ambush during travel. The reality of probabilities makes it so that at least one adventurer will fail that Stealth roll, and at least one adventurer will succeed that Awareness roll. This renders these kinds of roll rather moot.

Instead, the gamemaster should ask for a group roll using the following rules:

1. Designate a leader. This adventurer is the one taking point on the action. For instance, it’s the one leading the party during the enemy camp infiltration, or the one with the current scout shift during travel. This is often the best qualified character for the task, but sometimes the gamemaster may designate someone else (possibly randomly) based on the circumstances in the story.

2. Opt-in to help. Other characters in the party may choose to help the leader, if they are able. This means they actively participate in the action instead of just following the group. These characters must make a single ability roll as per the “Helping” rules (see previously).

3. Leader makes the roll. Add up all the modifiers obtained from helping characters, and let the leader make the final roll.

As per the “Helping” rules, if the leader qualifies for an experience check in their ability, any character who helped may choose to gain an experience check in their helping ability or the leader’s ability.

Opposed Rolls

An adventurer often doesn’t act in isolation, and instead face an opponent. In that case, the gamemaster may call for an opposed roll, in which both the adventurer and their opponent make an ability roll to determine who wins.

In an opposed roll, both parties make a basic ability roll. Sometimes both abilities are the same, such as an opposed Spear roll to determine who can best throw a javelin at a target. Other times, the abilities are different, such as when sneaking around, using the Stealth skill against some guard’s Perception skill.

Opposed Roll Outcomes

Compare the ability roll results to determine the winner of the opposed roll.

• If the two rolls have different levels of success, the higher level of success wins (i.e. a success is better than a failure, a critical success is better than a normal success, etc.)
• If both rolls succeed but have the same level of success, the higher roll wins.
• If both rolls fail, the outcome is probably moot. If knowing which character failed less than the other, the higher roll is better.

The following table details the outcome of these rules for all situations:

Active / Opposed	Critical Success	Success	Failure	Fumble
Critical Success	Weak Victory / Weak Defeat	Victory	Great Victory	Great Victory
Success	Defeat	Weak Victory / Weak Defeat	Victory	Great Victory
Failure	Great Defeat	Defeat	Mutual Failure	Mutual Failure
Fumble	Great Defeat	Great Defeat	Mutual Failure	Mutual Failure

Great Victory

A great victory is secured when the adventurer’s ability roll results in two or more degrees of success over the opponent’s: a critical success over a failure, or a success over a fumble. This means that the adventurer did better than their opponent by a wide margin, much more than anybody may have anticipated.

Victory

A victory happens when the adventurer’s ability roll is successful, and is one degree of success over the opponent’s: a success over a failure, or a critical success over a success. The adventurer succeeded when their opponent didn’t, or simply succeeded better.

Weak Victory and Tie

If both the adventurer and their opponent have the same degree of success (two successes or two critical successes), the one that wins is whoever had the highest number on the rolled percentile dice. This means that although they were both successful, one was narrowly better than the other. If both rolled numbers were exactly the same, the actions is an unlikely tie: nobody can really tell who was better than the other.

Mutual Failure

If both ability rolls fail, the contest between the adventurer and their opponent is probably invalid. However, if there is a point to comparing failures, use the same process as with victories. If one fumbled and the other merely failed, then the latter failed by much less and is the winner, or at least the lesser loser. If both rolls resulted in failure or fumble, whoever had the highest number on the rolled percentile dice failed less than the other.

Defeat

A defeat is the opposed outcome of a victory. If one character obtained a great victory, victory, or weak victory, their opponent obtained a great defeat, defeat, or weak defeat respectively.

Abilities Over 100%

An ability score over 100% represents a particular mastery of the subject, or a set of very favorable circumstances if that score was only attained thanks to many positive modifiers. The ability roll proceeds as usual, only with a bigger chance for getting a critical success.

Example: an ability of 135% has a 13% chance of a critical success. An ability of 410% has a 41% chance of a critical success. In all cases, a roll of 96-99 is always a failure, and 100 is always a fumble.

For opposed rolls where one ability is over 100% and the other is not, proceed as follow:

1. Roll both abilities as usual.
2. If both rolls have the same level of success, break the tie as usual by looking at the highest roll, but first add any excess rating over 100% to the rolled number. Otherwise, interpret the levels of success as usual.

If both abilities are equal to or over 100%, do the following:

1. Take the lowest of the abilities, and compute a penalty that brings it into the 50s percentiles. Apply the same penalty to the other ability.
2. Roll under the adjusted ability ratings and apply the opposed roll rules (including the rule above).

Example: in the case of 155% vs 70%, do not modify the scores and just roll as usual. In the case of 155% vs 112%, we can bring the lowest ability (112%) to the 50s percentile (52%) with a –60% modifier. Applying the same penalty to the other ability, we get 95% vs 52% as the effective opposed roll.

While making an opposed roll between 155% and 70%, the player and gamemaster roll 51 and 68 respectively. These are both successes so the highest roll wins. However, the roll of 51 is modified by +55 and is now considered as 106, which is higher than 68, so the player character wins.

If somehow both abilities are over 300%, use the following rule instead:

1. Divide both abilities by 10 (or by a multiple of 10 until the lowest ability falls below 100).
2. Roll under the adjusted ability ratings and apply the opposed roll rules (including both rules above).

Example: an ability of 342% against 406% would be reduced to 34% against 40%.