Rating Things

Rating Things

Introduction

For players coming from other systems, Flagstone's rating system is the first of many hurdles to overcome in order to become fluent with the system. In brief, the rating system is shorthand for the dice mechanics. The rating system comes into play in a few scenarios, such as indicating which die or dice a player should roll, determining modifiers, or creating a comparitive scale.

When you describe what dice a player needs to roll and what bonuses to add, you would say "roll one die four and add your +3 bonus(1d4+3). This is precisely what the rating system does. It is a three digit designation to specify which dice a character needs to roll. This three digit code is called the rating.

In the case where there is a single numerical bonus or penalty to be applied. In this case, Flagstone uses a single character designation called a 'Rank'. Rank always refers to a single number value represented by the character. (i.e. E = 1 See table below).

In some cases there needs to be a comparison between similar things, such as size. In these cases, C serves as the average, with distributions above and below.

Ratings

Nearly every system in Flagstone, from a Loadout, Feature Skill, or to weapons and armor, uses a three component system to rate their relative power. These components are Potency, Range, and Efficiency. From lowest to highest, they are rated E through S (E, D, C, B, A, S). These ratings are applied in several ways throughout the rules, but the most common is to determine the number and type of die to be used for spells and abilities and the resource cost of doing so.

• Potency: Determines how many dice are rolled, or acts as a multiplier in the digital game. For single character ratings it is a static +x bonus where x is the numeric value of the Potency.


• Range: Determines the amount of variation by indicating the type of die to roll (d4,d6,d8,etc). For values like range which are variable by nature, range indicates the value of the range based on the potency.


• Efficiency: When determining cost, Efficiency is calculated cost reduction per Potency die that the cost is reduced by. For all other instances, Efficiency is calculated as a bonus per Potency die that is added to the total. Bonuses listed as efficiency bonuses are added cumulatively.

Potency, Range, and Efficiency ratings are tracked and improved seperately. Every ability and template will thus have a rated value that determines all numeric attributes. The method for improving them depends on the context and will be described in the relevant sections. Game elements will often make use of all three components. If this is not true for a particular mechanic it will be described in the relvant section.

Note: Rank E is reserved for untrained or common elements. For any element with an E ranking, Potency and Efficiency are 1, and the range is d4.

Note to new players

In most d20 systems 3d8+3(CCC) would mean roll 3d8, sum the result, and add 3. This is not the case in Flagstone. In Flagstone, Efficiency is calculated as a bonus per Potency die, so it would be read: roll 3(d8+3).

— Alter the Sage

Units

Units of measurement are a requirement for many situations in the game, from determining how far a character can teleport to how far they can fire a bow, to how much water is created with conjure water. In Flagstone, one tile or hex on a battle map is equivalent to 2 m^2. Distances on world maps will depend on the scale of the map. The units of measure scale with the rating of the ability as listed in the relevant table below:

An abilities unit value is updated independently of it's rating. Each Unit increase raises the Potency of the ability by one for the purpose of calculating mana.