Roll and Keep

Dice are expressed as XkY, where X is how many d10s you roll and Y is how many you keep. You add up the kept dice.

Special Dice Rules

Exploding Dice

Except on unskilled rolls (using a skill of 0), rolled 10s explode: roll an extra d10 for each 10 rolled. Dice can keep exploding.

Ten Dice Rule

You never roll more than 10 dice. Extra rolled dice are converted into kept dice at a 2:1 ratio; 12k4 becomes 10k5. Past 10 kept dice, extra dice become a flat bonus of +2 per die; 15k9 becomes 10k10 +6.

Target Numbers

The Target Number is the total result required to succeed at a task.

House Rule: The TN for most Rolls is revealed before the player calls Raises and makes the Roll; at this point, they cannot withdraw from the action. The TN for Contested Rolls is not revealed, and Raises must be called "blind."

Table: TNs

TN	Difficulty
None	Mundane
5	Very Easy
10	Easy
15	Average
20	Moderate
25	Difficult
30	Very Hard
40	Heroic
60	Impossible

Rings and Traits

Each Ring includes two Traits; the rating of a Ring is equal to the lowest Trait rating inside it. The average rating is 2; the general human range is 1–5, and 10 is the maximum for supernatural beings.

Air

Air is enigmatic and mercurial, intuitive and instinctive.

Awareness (AWA): Intuition, empathy, charisma, manipulation. Social Skills.

Reflexes (REF): Reactions, swiftness. Initiative, Armor TN.

Earth

Endurance, resistance, staying power. Determines Wounds.

Willpower (WIL): Focus, persistence, resisting manipulation and intimidation.

Stamina (STA): Endurance, health, recovering from injuries.

Fire

Dynamism, change, energy, motion.

Intelligence (INT): Learning, applying knowledge, quick thinking.

Agility (AGI): Coordination, athleticism. Weapon Skills.

Water

Rapid change, inexorable force.

Perception (PER): Sharp senses, noticing things.

Strength (STR): Physical power and forec. Weapon damage.

Void

The Void Ring represents a deep connection to the universe and the Heavens.

Characters may make a number of Raises on rolls equal to their Void Ring.

Characters have Void Points equal to their Void Ring. These points can be spent (see below), and are recovered daily after resting (or by certain meditation techniques). Generally, only one Void Point may be spent in a round.

Void Points may be spent for one of the following effects:

• +1k1 to a Skill, Trait, Ring, or Spell Casting roll (declared prior to the roll), but not Damage Rolls.
• Temporarily increase a Skill rank from 0 to 1 (avoiding unskilled penalties).
• Reduce Wounds suffered from one source by 10 (done immediately on suffering damage).
• Take a Free Action while at the Down Wound Rank.
• Increase Armor TN by 10 for one round (at the beginning of a round).
• Exchange Initiative Scores with a willing target for the remainder of a combat (at the beginning of a round).
• Increase Initiative Score by 10 for the remainder of a combat (at the beginning of a round).
• Activate certain School Techniques. (Not subject to the one point per round limit.)

Ring & Trait Reduction

A penalty to a Ring or Trait affects any rolls using that Ring or Trait (a Ring includes its Traits). Abilities derived from Rings and Traits are also affected (e.g. Wounds are affected by penalties to the Earth Ring). If a living creature's Earth Ring is reduced to 0, they die; other Rings may be reduced to 0 without causing death, but other effects are possible (usually incapacitation of some sort).

Skills

Skills are ranked 0 to 10. 0 is unskilled (and carries special penalties for use), 1 indicates the most basic knowledge, and 10 is history's greatest master or a supernatural being.

Various skills also come with special Mastery Abilities at certain ranks.

Raises

A player may declare a Raise on a roll, increasing the TN by 5, in order to achieve a special or more impressive effect. Some circumstances and special abilities specify detailed rules for Raises, but otherwise, the GM will judge how many Raises are required for an effect.

A character can make a maximum number of Raises equal to their Void Ring on any roll. Some mechanics grant Free Raises, which count as a Raise without increasing the TN. Free Raises may also be spent to reduce the TN by 5 each.

Dice Penalties

Sometimes, a roll is assigned a penalty in dice, like -3k0. The number of kept dice cannot exceed the number of rolled dice.

Types of Rolls

Skill Rolls

Skill rolls are expressed as Skill/Trait. You roll dice equal to Skill + Trait, and keep dice equal to Trait. (E.g. an Agility/Kenjutsu roll with Agility 3 and Kenjutsu 3 is 6k3.)

Unskilled Rolls

A character with no ranks (or rank 0) in a skill just rolls and keeps dice equal to the applicable Trait. In addition, two special rules apply:

• Dice don't explode.
• No Raises can be called or used (including Free Raises).

Retries

The GM may judge that a Skill Roll may be retried after it fails. The TN for the retry increases by +10. This doesn't apply to attacks, obviously.

Cooperative Rolls

Cooperative Skill Rolls involve characters working together. There are two types.

The first type is when one character's failure doesn't hinder the effort. In this case, pick one participant to make a Skill Roll; they get a bonus to their total equal to the combined skill Ranks of the other participants.

The second type is when one character's failure can hinder the entire effort (e.g. sneaking as a group). In this case, everyone must make their own Skill Roll, but the highest Skill Rank used is applied as a bonus to the totals of all participants who have a lower Rank.

Cumulative Rolls

Cumulative Skill Rolls take place over a longer time, usually with each roll requiring a certain amount of time. The TNs are very high. Each roll adds its total towards the TN, cumulatively.

The GM can set a minimum TN for an individual roll to count towards the total, and might even subtract from the total on a poor roll.

A Cumulative Skill Roll might also be Cooperative.

Trait & Ring Rolls

Trait and Ring rolls are less common. You roll and keep dice equal to the Trait or Ring. (E.g. a Strength roll with Strength 2 is 2k2.)

[Trait and Ring Roll TNs should be about 5 lower than usual for the corresponding difficulty.]

Damage Rolls

Damage rolls are made after successful attacks and vary a lot. Most weapons have a Damage Rating (DR), like 2k2, and usually the wielder's Strength is added to the dice rolled, but not kept. (E.g. a hit with a DR 2k2 katana by a character with Strength 3 is a 5k2 roll.) For some ranged weapons, the weapon has a Strength of its own that is added to the ammunition's DR.

Unarmed damage has a DR of 0k1, to which Strength is added.

Spell Casting Rolls

Spell casting rolls are made by shugenja to cast spells. The caster rolls dice equal to the spell's Ring plus their Shugenja School Rank, and keep dice equal to the Ring. (E.g. a Rank 1 shugenja with Air 3 casting an Air spell makes a 4k3 roll.)

Contested Rolls

Contested rolls are rolls of any type where two or more contestants compare results. The highest total roll wins. Ties are resolved with a re-roll.

If a contestant declares Raises, they must beat their opponents by 5 per Raise or they lose.

Wind and Weather

Heavy winds or bad weather can impose penalties on ranged attacks and spellcasting TNs. The effect is not cumulative, weather is assumed to include wind: use the higher applicable penalty.

Degrees of Wind: Still, Breeze, Gusts (+5 TN), Storm (+10 TN)

Degrees of Weather: Calm, Showers, Rain (+5 TN), Storm (+10 TN), Torrential Storm (+15 TN), Hurricane (+20 TN)