Chimera uses an ability score system in order to quantify how good a character might be at a given task. This system in its entirety is called an
attribute. In parts, it involves four key things:
scores,
skills,
saves, and
stats.
Scores
For Chimera D10, everything a player can do is tied back to scores, of which there are four:
Body,
Mind,
Spirit, and
Heart. An attribute represents how well a character can do something, and changes with the character as they gain experience by completing milestones and level up. The links to each score are seen below:
- Body: physicality and motor coordination
- Mind: mental prowess and world knowledge
- Spirit: luck and determination against fate
- Heart: sociability and intuition
The greater the score, the better the character is at a specific aspect of the game world and the more benefits from their skills and stats they receive. You character can grow over time and
level up in the game; when this occurs, your overall score will increase to reinforce this. This a huge part of the game! But you have to earn it. So, to begin, each player starts with a base of 0 in each score. A scores value goes between 1 and 10. All scores have modifiers which affect both skills and stats, as discussed later.
Score Modifiers
After Scores are determined, a player needs to determine the corresponding score's modifier. A modifier is a number value that is half the value of the score, rounded up, and must have a minimum value of 1. To illustrate, Scores go in a range from 0 - 9; A modifier increases on every odd number: (0 = 1, 1 = 1, 2 = 1, 3 = 2 ... 9 = 5). Modifiers are used to determine a couple of mechanical features within Chimera, as noted in the in greater detail in the Attribute article linked below.
| SCORE
| 0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
| MODIFIER |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
Skills
If the character wants to interact with the game world, The GM might prompt a PC to use a skill. Skills are ways the player and GM can quantify how effectively a player's character can interact with the world. As such, each skill is meant to be a broad category to encompass most of the interactions one can take within the game.
The skill proficiencies one has and a score’s modifier is key to determining how effective a skill is; but how the modifier is used depends on what kind of skill is in question. In Chimera, there are two types of skills:
basic skills and
ranked skills.
Basic Skills
Basic skills are used to pass skill checks, whether by rolling or spending energy. Using a player's
Origin Story, a player can determine which skills they have proficiency in--or what skills they can use by spending one energy and not spending their
Resolve. When looking at how modifiers apply to basic skills, the value of the modifier determines how many dice a player has access to when rolling for a skill they are proficient in.
Ranked Skills
Proficiency does not apply to Ranked skills. Instead, Ranked Skills determine what a player has access to for their
armor ,magic,
weapon, and
crafting. the "rank" a player has access to is determined by the value of their score modifier. If a player character has a modifier of one in Speciality, they can craft rank one recipes, as noted in the
Equipment section.
Saves
If the world imposes upon the player character, The GM will call for a save, like a reflex to avoid danger.
Saves exist under specific scores, as there are four saves as well--
social,
mental,
will, and
physical. Please note, the Gm determines when a character saves--not the player. If a character does not have enough time to react, or if a character is completely unaware of the impending effect, a GM might dictate that a character cannot save, and instead suffers the effect. However, this tend to be the exception to the rule, as most effects will be within the player's awareness.
When a character does roll for their save and either
critically passes or passes the roll for a save, this is indicative of that character avoiding danger. On the other hand, If a save is critical fail for their roll, a player character then is in danger! an effect is taken by the character accordingly.
Stats
To quantify inherent qualities that are characteristic of your character--
how healthy they are,
how much energy they have,
how many abilities they can have ready at one time, and
how much their resolve allows them to twist fate --Chimera uses stats. To see each stat, please click in the list to go to a topic that interests you.
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