AX&X: Core Rules

Character Creation

Roll abilities, pick a kindred, class, and alignment, buy gear, then roll a Tie. Lifepaths adds a Trinket and a fuller past.

Abilities

Roll 3d6 in order. Modifier: 3: −3 | 4–5: −2 | 6–8: −1 | 9–12: 0 | 13–15: +1 | 16–17: +2 | 18: +3.

• STR: Melee attack and damage. Item slots equal to the score, with a pack worn.
• DEX: Missile attack. AC edge at high DEX, see Gear.
• CON: HP per Hit Die. Body saves.
• INT: Lore, languages. Magic-User with +1 or better: one extra 1st-level slot.
• WIS: Perception, Will saves. Cleric with +1 or better: one extra 1st-level slot.
• CHA: Reactions, parley, hirelings.

Classes

Level 1 HP is the maximum of one Hit Die + CON. A weapon outside your class list attacks at −2. Your track sets attack bonus and XP; your class adds a Hit Die, a save boon, a kit, and a signature.

• Tracks: Attack by Level: Warrior +Level, a 2nd attack at Level 6 and a 3rd at 11 | Specialist and Priest +half Level (round up) | Mage +half Level (round down). Level 2: Specialist 1,500, Warrior and Priest 2,000, Mage 2,500 XP; each later Level doubles.
• Fighter: Warrior, d8. Any weapon and armor. +2 Body. Kit: weapon, shield, medium armor.
• Barbarian: Warrior, d10. +2 to saves vs magic, and distrusts magic items: will not wield one. No heavy armor; 40 ft on foot. Kit: a heavy weapon, hide armor, a slain beast’s trophy.
• Ranger: Warrior, d8. +2 Body. Surprised only on a 1, surprises on 1–3. Tracks, hunts, forages as a Class Check, +2 in a chosen wild. Kit: bow, blade, woodcraft gear.
• Cleric: Priest, d6. Blunt weapons, medium or heavy armor. +2 Will. Divine spells; Turns undead. Lawful or Chaotic. Kit: holy symbol, mace, medium armor.
• Thief: Specialist, d6. Light weapons and armor. +2 Dodge. Stealth, locks, traps, climbing are Class Checks with DEX +2. Backstab: +4 and double damage on the unaware. Kit: thieves’ tools, light weapon, light armor.
• Magic-User: Mage, d4. Dagger or staff, no armor. +2 to saves vs magic. Spellbook of two 1st-level spells. Kit: spellbook, dagger.

Kindred

Any kindred, any class. One trait each.

• Human: +1 to one ability score after rolling, and a 10% bonus to all XP earned, rising fastest.
• Dwarf: +2 to Body saves. Sees 60 ft in the dark. Notes sloping passages and new stonework.
• Elf: Immune to Sleep and Charmed. Sees 60 ft in the dark.
• Halfling: Once per day, reroll a failed d20. +2 to stealth checks. +1 AC against foes larger than human. No two-handed weapons.
• Half-Orc: +1 to melee damage. Sees 60 ft in the dark.

Alignment

Law, Neutrality, or Chaos. Undead, demons, and most monsters are Chaotic. Protection from Evil and Turn Undead work against Chaos. Act against your alignment and the GM may strip a Cleric’s spells until atonement.

Gear

Take your class kit to start, or roll 3d6 x 10 GP and shop. AC is 10, or the armor value, plus a DEX edge: +1 at DEX 16–17, +2 at 18. Slots equal STR with a pack worn, fewer without; a heavy hoard of coin costs slots at the GM’s call, about one per 100. Each weapon is blunt, edged, or piercing, chosen when bought.

• Weapons: Light (1d4, 1 slot) 2 GP | Medium (1d6, 1 slot) 10 GP | Heavy, two hands (1d10, 2 slots) 15 GP | Spear (1d6, 1 slot) 3 GP | Polearm, two hands (1d8, 2 slots) 8 GP | Javelin (1d4, 1 slot) 1 GP | Darts (1d3, 1 slot) 1 GP | Sling (1d4, 1 slot) 2 GP | Bow, with arrows (1d6, 2 slots) 20 GP | Crossbow, with bolts (1d6+1, 2 slots) 25 GP.
• Armor: Light (AC 11, 1 slot) 20 GP | Medium (AC 14, 2 slots) 75 GP | Heavy (AC 16, 3 slots) 100 GP | Shield (+1 AC, 1 slot) 10 GP. A shield’s bonus counts only against foes you face; splinter it to negate one hit, then it is gone.
• Consumables: Rations (7 days, 1 slot) 5 GP | Torches (6, 1 slot) 1 GP | Lantern and 3 flasks (2 slots) 12 GP | Oil flask (thrown: 1d6 fire and Burning) 2 GP | Blade poison, 1 dose 25 GP.
• Tools: Rope 50 ft (1 slot) 1 GP | Ten-foot pole (1 slot) 1 GP | Spikes and hammer (1 slot) 3 GP | Grapnel (1 slot) 5 GP | Sack (holds 3 slots, 1 slot) 1 GP | Mirror 10 GP | Whistle, chalk 1 GP.

Playing the Game

The Core Roll

• Check: For a risky action, roll 1d20 + Ability Mod, 12+ to succeed. Fall short and it fails, or succeeds at a cost. 9+ for easy, 15+ for hard. Round down by default; a bonus or penalty counts once per source.
• Class Check: A check using class training adds your Level: 1d20 + Level + Ability Mod, 12+.

• Save: A check against a hazard: 1d20 + half Level + Ability Mod, 12+, or 10 + HD or higher if a creature caused it. Success avoids or halves the effect. Monsters save at 1d20 + HD, 10 + the caster’s Level or higher.

  • Body (CON): poison, death magic, paralysis, petrification, disease. Dodge (DEX): breath, blasts, falling, pits, dart traps. Will (WIS): spells, charm, fear, illusion. Save against the effect, not the thing that delivers it.
• Aid: Spend your action to help an ally’s check or attack: +2.
• Natural 20 and 1 (optional): 20 auto-succeeds, an attack dealing maximum damage, doubled if vulnerable; 1 auto-fails, badly. Omit for 1e.

Time

• Turn (10 minutes): The exploration unit: move through a few rooms, search a room, pick a lock, or rest.

  • Rest: After five turns of activity, rest one turn or be Weakened until you do. Torches: 6 turns. Lantern flask: 24 turns.
• Round (10 seconds): The combat unit. On your turn you act or move, as Combat sets out.
• Day: Ends with 8 hours of sleep and a ration each. Skip the ration and you heal nothing and are Weakened until you eat.

Exploration

• Search: One turn per 10 ft section, WIS check: find a secret door, trap, or hidden cache. A Thief uses a Class Check, and can disarm a trap they find. A trap left unfound springs when triggered, forcing its Dodge save.
• Doors: Stuck: STR check to force. Listen: WIS check, one turn. Held with spikes: 1d4 turns against a monster.
• Wandering Monsters: Roll 1d6 every third turn, and at once after a fight, a forced door, or a shout: a 1, or 1–2 after noise, brings a wanderer from the Threat table.
• Darkness: Swinging at what you can’t see is −4. Targeted spells need line of sight.
• Hirelings: Torchbearer 1 GP/day (HD 1/2, HP 3, AC 10). Man-at-arms 5 GP/day (HD 1, HP 6, AC 13, Atk +1, 1d6). Each takes a half share of XP. When first asked to risk death, make a CHA check or they flee or quit.

Encounters

• Four Answers: Meet a monster four ways: Fight, Flee, Talk, or Exploit a weakness. A look or a Lore check with INT tells you what cuts it, what it shrugs off, and what it wants.
• Surprise: When an encounter begins, each side rolls 1d6: on 1–2 it’s caught off guard and loses the first round. A side that saw it coming, or that scouted ahead, isn’t; a side that sneaks in unseen, on a won stealth check, surprises outright.
• Distance: An encounter opens about 2d6 x 10 ft apart, less in tight quarters or on a surprise, more in the open. Then roll reaction and set the order.
• Reaction: When a monster’s intent is unclear, roll 2d6 + CHA: 2–5 hostile | 6–8 wary, open to a deal | 9+ friendly, for now.
• Morale: When a group first loses a member, and again at half strength, the GM rolls 1d6: on 1–3 the rest flee or yield. Mindless or cornered monsters skip this.

Combat

• Initiative: Each round, roll 1d6 per side, high side first, or let the fiction set the order. On a tie, both act at once: resolve everything before anyone drops.
• Action: Each round, either act, attack, cast, use an item, or aid, with a short step, or move up to 30 ft (20 in medium or heavy armor). Run doubles it. Reaching a far foe is a move; you strike next round, or Charge: close and attack at once, +2 to hit and −2 AC until your next turn.
• Withdraw: Leaving an enemy’s reach draws a free attack. Withdraw instead: half speed, no action, and no attack drawn.
• Attack: Roll 1d20 + Attack Mod vs AC. Attack Mod = your track bonus + STR (melee) or DEX (missile). Monsters attack at + HD. Two on one target: +2 each.
• Range: Near is 30 ft, a thrown weapon’s reach. A bow, sling, or crossbow carries 60 ft, 120 ft at −2, 240 ft at −5. Shots a round: darts 3, bow 2, sling 1; a crossbow fires once, then reloads an action. Half cover: −2 to hit; full cover, no target. Loose into a melee and a miss hits a random figure, friend or foe.
• Reach & Thrown: A spear or polearm strikes from the second rank, behind a front-line ally, and keeps a closing foe at bay. A spear or javelin throws to Near; any one-handed weapon at −2.
• Damage: Weapon die + STR for melee. A creature resistant to a damage type takes half; vulnerable, double. At 0 HP, roll on Brush with Death. Damage past 0 is ignored.
• Poison: A dose on a blade lasts one hit: Body save or Poisoned. Applying it is an action.
• Casting: Takes the action. If the caster took damage earlier in the round, the spell is lost.
• Helpless: Attacks on a sleeping, paralyzed, or bound target hit automatically.
• Ending: A side that is down, flees, or yields ends it. Break line of sight to escape, unless chased at equal speed. A CHA check may turn a fight to parley, if the enemy can talk.

Healing & Injury

• Bind Wounds: During a rest turn, once per day, regain 1d4 HP.
• Sleep: A Day regains one Hit Die + CON.
• Haven: A week in a safe town or refuge restores all HP and ends Injured.
• Magic: Cure Light Wounds and potions restore HP at once.
• At 0 HP: Drop to 0 and roll Brush with Death: 1d6 + 1 per earlier Brush this day, read below, 7+ always Slain. A new day clears the count. Slain, Maimed, and Petrified are permanent unless the GM provides a cure. The player may bring in a replacement at the next room or scene.
• The Long Road: Between delves a party lives off the land and lays up to heal, and with time and safety even a maiming can mend. The downtime supplement runs it, or rule it at the table.

Conditions

• The Answer: A deadly effect has a counter: the right item, spell, or class skill, spent the round it lands, negates it. The GM telegraphs the trick a round before, so a prepared party can deny it.
• Weakened: −2 to all d20 rolls; −4 from two separate sources.
• Poisoned: 1d6 damage at the end of each round and Weakened. Body save at the end of each round to end it.
• Paralyzed: No move or action for 1d4 rounds. Helpless.
• Asleep: Helpless. Wakes when damaged or after a round of shaking.
• Charmed: Treats the caster as a trusted friend for a day. Harm from the caster ends it.
• Frightened: Must flee from the source for 1d4 rounds.
• Burning: 1d6 fire damage each round until a round is spent dousing.
• Petrified: Stone. Out of play, permanent unless cured.
• Injured: Weakened until healed as the Brush with Death result states.

Magic

• Spell Levels: Spells are level 1 to 3 here. Prepare spells into slots each day after sleeping. Slots by caster Level, as 1st/2nd/3rd: 1: 1 | 2: 2 | 3: 2/1 | 4: 3/2 | 5: 4/2/1 | 6: 4/2/2. Beyond Level 6, add one slot per Level.
• Clerics: Pray. May prepare any Cleric spell of a level they have slots for.
• Magic-Users: Prepare only from the spellbook, which starts with two 1st-level spells and takes a slot. A Day of study copies a scroll into it, using the scroll up. A lost book costs 15 GP and a Day per spell to rewrite.
• Turn Undead: Once per fight, a Cleric rolls 1d20 + Level + WIS against the strongest undead present, 10 + its HD or higher. On success, 2d6 HD of undead flee for 1d4 turns, weakest first. If the Cleric’s Level is 3 or more above their HD, they are destroyed instead.
• Cleric 1: Cure Light Wounds (1d8 HP, ends Poisoned) | Light (30 ft, 6 turns) | Bless (+1 to the party’s attacks and saves, one fight) | Protection from Evil (+2 AC and saves against Chaotic creatures, one fight).
• Magic-User 1: Magic Missile (1d4+1 force, never misses) | Sleep (2d4 HD of creatures of 4 HD or less, Asleep, no save) | Shield (+4 AC, one fight) | Charm Person (Will save or Charmed) | Hold Portal (a door stays shut 6 turns).
• Higher Spells: Spell levels 2 and 3, and the full spell list, are in the Spellbook supplement.

Advancement

• XP: 1 GP = 1 XP once brought to town. A defeated or outwitted monster earns 25 XP per HD. The first visit to each dungeon level earns 100 XP x depth. Level 2 costs by track (see Classes); each later Level doubles the last.
• Level Up: Roll one more Hit Die + CON and add it to HP. Attacks follow your track; saves and slots follow Level.
• Improvise: These rules are bones, not the whole beast. When something’s not covered, call a Check at 12+, jot down how you ruled it, and stick with that. Trust the fiction over the sheet: a sound ruling can stand in for a roll, and a foe can run on a look and a want. Anything from 1st Edition drops right in: AC is 19 minus the old number, HD is HD, saves as above.

Running the Dungeon

• Depth: Dungeon level 1 is nearest the surface. On levels 1 and 2, roll Threat on the 1d6 table below; deeper, add the level and read the heavier foes from the Bestiary. Coin results multiply by the level.
• Stocking: For each room roll 1d6: 1–3 empty (1-in-6 chance of hidden treasure, found by Search) | 4 monster (1-in-2 chance it guards treasure) | 5 trap or trick (Dodge save or 2d6 damage, or a puzzle; below level 3, gas: Body save or Petrified) | 6 treasure, with a guard on 1–2 on 1d6.
• Handing Out Treasure: Treasure comes from stocking, not from fights. Defeated monsters carry 1d6 x 10 GP on a 1–2 on 1d6, else nothing but XP. A leader of 3+ HD carries one Treasure roll.

1d6 Threat

1. Giant Rats: HD 1/2, HP 2, AC 12, Atk +0 (1d3 piercing). 2d6 rats. A bite on a 20 also gives disease: Poisoned.
2. Goblin Band: HD 1, HP 4, AC 13, Atk +1 (1d6). 1d6 goblins ambush from cover.
3. Skeleton Guard: HD 1, HP 5, AC 13, Atk +1 (1d6). 1d6. Mindless. Resistant to piercing and edged, vulnerable to blunt.
4. Orc Patrol: HD 1, HP 5, AC 13, Atk +1 (1d8). 1d4 warriors demanding blood or toll.
5. Ghoul: HD 2, HP 10, AC 14, Atk +2, two claws and a bite (1d3). Any hit: Body save or Paralyzed. Mindless.
6. Giant Spider: HD 2, HP 9, AC 14, Atk +2 (1d6 piercing). A hit: Body save or Poisoned. Webs: Dodge save or stuck 1d4 rounds.

1d6 Treasure

1. Loose Pouch: 2d6 x 10 GP.
2. Coin Cache: 1d6 x 100 GP.
3. Chest: 1d6 x 100 GP and 1d4 gems (50 GP each). Locked.
4. Art: Silverware, idols, or a tapestry worth 300 GP. Two slots.
5. Gems: 2d6 cut stones at 50 GP each, in one pouch. One slot.
6. Magic Item: Roll 1d6: 1–4 a Potion (Healing 1d8 HP, or Giant Strength, +2 melee attack and damage for 6 turns) | 5–6 a Charm (a Scroll of one level 1–3 spell, or a +1 weapon or armor, which counts as magic and silver). Plus 1d6 x 100 GP. Named relics and the full roster are in the Relics and Wonders supplement.

1d6 Ties to the World

1. Ally: A named NPC owes you their life. They will come once if called.
2. Enemy: Someone wants you dead, and knows where you drink.
3. Debt: You owe 200 GP to someone who collects.
4. Patron: A temple, guild, or noble pays 50 GP for each map you bring back.
5. Mentor: An old adventurer. One question answered per delve, by letter.
6. Kin: A relative went into the dungeon and never came back.

1d6 Brush with Death

1. Close Call: Negate the blow that felled you and any effect it carried.
2. Close Call: As above.
3. Scarred: −1 CHA checks or +1 intimidate. Back to full HP, ailments cleared.
4. Shaken: Drop your gear. 1 HP. Injured until a Haven.
5. Grievous Wound: Out until healed by magic or sleep. Injured until a Haven.
6. Maimed: Lose a limb or eye. Out 1d4 turns, then 1 HP. Injured for good.