The ten-minute rulebook
Learn Aspects and Fate Points by playing with it.
Every game on Elrune has its own short guide: the core roll, a turn, health and harm, and how characters grow. Every roll here runs the same rules code as the table.
The dice of every game, in 3D, and how to type a roll
CHAPTER 1
The core roll
Roll four Fate dice. Each shows plus, minus or blank, so together they give −4 to +4. Add your skill rating and read the total on the ladder: Mediocre (+0), Average (+1), Fair (+2), Good (+3), Great (+4), up to Legendary (+8).
Compare it with the opposition, a ladder value the GM sets or another character’s roll. Below it you fail, equal is a tie, one or two higher you succeed, and three or more higher you succeed with style. Each step above is a shift.
You roll for one of four actions: overcome an obstacle, create an advantage, attack or defend. After a roll you can spend a fate point to invoke an aspect that fits, for +2 or a reroll.
Try it · Overcome an obstacle
Set it up, then roll.
A demo: rolled in your browser. At a table every roll is made on the server.
CHAPTER 2
A turn
Outside a conflict there are no turns: you say what your character does and roll when the outcome is in doubt.
In a conflict the turn order comes from Notice for a physical fight or Empathy for a mental one, with no roll. On your turn you take one action and may move one zone; Fight reaches your own zone and Shoot up to two zones away. Defending is a roll the target makes against your attack.
CHAPTER 3
Health and harm
There are no hit points. An attack’s shifts are absorbed by stress boxes, which come from Physique and Will, and by consequences: mild, moderate and severe. A consequence becomes an aspect on your character that your foe can invoke once without paying.
If you cannot absorb a hit you are taken out. Concede before the dice are rolled and you choose how you leave the conflict, gaining a fate point plus one for each consequence you took. Stress clears when the conflict ends; consequences take time to recover.
CHAPTER 4
How characters grow
Characters change at milestones. A minor milestone lets you make one change: swap two skills, swap or buy a stunt, or rename an aspect. A significant milestone adds a skill point. A major milestone also raises the skill cap, gives a point of refresh and lets you rename your high concept.
Ready for a table?
Elrune keeps the bookkeeping of Aspects and Fate Points: every roll on the server, the sheet worked out, the turn order and the harm tracked, so your table can tell the story.