Basics

Welcome to Ironclaw! This page covers some of the basic terminology of the Ironclaw system as well as interesting rules. Don't worry: this page is explicitly designed to be non-confusing.

Check the Combat page for situations involving violence, and Spot Rules for some of the more complex situations that may arise.

Game Host
The game host is Ironclaw's word for Dungeonmaster/Gamemaster. There is literally no reason to worry about this.

Declare and Claim
When a player Declares an action, they tell the GM what they want to do. "I declare my character climbs the tree!" "I declare I shoot the guard with an arrow!" "I declare I seduce that woman!"

The GM then decides whether this action succeeds, sometimes using dice to determine the outcome.

(You don't need to use the word "declare" -- most other RPGs just assume you understand this concept.)

Some abilities need to be Declared, simply meaning you have to tell the GM you're using that ability BEFORE you roll the dice. This is particularly important in battle -- you can't get a nice roll and THEN decide you want to use your super awesome one-shot refresh ability.

Claims are any actions that can happen after a dice roll. For example, Reactions are claimed. So too are bonuses -- if you forget you have an extra die to roll, then you can claim it even after you've rolled your other dice.

Dice
Ironclaw uses the d4 through the d12.

NEVER add the dice together.

The highest roll is called your score.

The Rule of Four
The average challenge in the game is 3. So, your dice need to roll higher than a 3 to succeed.

Thus the rule of four: on most rolls, any die that rolls a 4 or higher is successful.

As a quick aside, this means... Rolling 3d4 has a better chance at success than a single d6. In most cases, you only need a single die to beat the challenge to be successful, although there are exceptions. In addition, not every challenge is versus 3: a steep cliff might have a challenge of 8 to climb, meaning most normal players are shit outta luck if they try to climb it.
 * A d4 has a 25% chance of succeeding
 * A d6 has a 50% chance
 * A d8 has a 62.5% chance.
 * A d10 has 70% chance.
 * A d12 has a 75% chance.

For you DnD and Pathfinder geeks out there, the Rule of Four is to Ironclaw what the DC10 is to most other games.

OVERWHELMING VICTORY
If you beat a challenge with more dice than you need, then your action is especially successful! Good job!

CONTESTS
When competing against another character (for example, trying to interrogate a secret out of them), both characters roll dice and compare their highest scores. The higher score wins.

In a tie, try to think of a reason why you would win the conflict. Yes, that's right: you can roleplay your way to an advantage! Combat has more specific rules on how to deal with ties.

BOTCH
When you roll all 1s, you spectacularly fail. What this means is up to the GM.

QUOTAS
Sometimes a task requires tons of successes. For example, getting better from the flu might require 30 Body successes vs 3. These large numbers are called quotas, and hopefully your GM is not sadistic enough to implement them in most cases. Botches actually REMOVE successes from your running tally -- ouch.

Bonuses and Penalties
Bonuses include any extra dice you can roll. Gifts often give these bonuses.

Penalties are extra dice rolled against you. Basically, whenever you're in a bad situation, your enemy gets a Bonus.

Sometimes normal challenges incur a penalty, such as if you're trying to climb a wall when your foot is broken. In this case, the GM rolls the penalty die, and whichever number is higher (of the original challenge or the penalty roll), you have to beat THAT one in order to succeed.

Assists
Sometimes multiple characters can try to help one person be extra awesome.

In this case, all the assistants roll against a 3, and everyone who succeeds gives the main player a bonus d8 when it's their turn to roll! Woo!

However, if any assistant botches, the whole task fails miserably. Boo.

None of this applies to combat.

Rote
Rote is a word that here means 'shit I do every day to the point where I don't have to think about it.'

The rule I'm about to describe is what Pathfinders and DnD geeks would call 'taking 10' - it's a bit more complex here.

Basically, take all the dice you would apply to a non-dire, non-combative situation. In this example, I need to ride a horse. So I would max out all my dice that apply to horse-riding (let's say 2d6) and see how many successes that gives me (2!).

Then, I take the number of successes I got, and round down (1 success!).

Basically, if a player has more than one die to apply to a situation, they can typically do that situation by rote, which again means 'so easy I can succeed any time I want'.

When do rotes apply?
Ask the following three questions: a yes to all three means the task can be solved by rote: ASSISTS AND ROTES CAN BE COMBINED. Abuse this to your pleasure.
 * 1) Are you rolling against a fixed difficulty?
 * 2) Is the task familiar to you?
 * 3) Is there any risk for failure?

Limits
In some situations, the size of your dice will be limited by some rule. Examples include:
 * Burden limits: Carrying too much weight limits Speed and Dodge to d8.
 * Riding limit: Any skill used while riding are limited to your largest Riding die (or a d4, whichever is bigger).
 * Swimming limit: Same as riding, but for Swimming.
 * Vehicles limit: Same as riding, but for Vehicles.

Favor
If you have Favor, then you can re-roll any one die that came up as a 1.

Any skill with a mark in it can be declared to have a Favorite Use. For example, for crafting, I might consider my favorite use sculpting with marble. In that case, if I rolled a 1 when sculpting with marble, I could claim Favor and reroll that shitty die.