The gameplay of Mortal Reins is centered around the telling of a story, and is therefore largely played out as a series of scenes and dialogues between characters. Over the course of the story scenarios may come up where the characters face challenges and opposition. In these situations the outcome of the interaction may be uncertain. While the book goes into more detail and covers a broader scope of situations, the concepts covered here are a simplified version of how Mortal Reins handles conflict.
As is the case in many role playing games, each character has sets of skills with numerical values assigned to them to signify that individuals talents and capabilities. When a challenge arises players can roll dice to determine the outcome of their action based on the bonuses received from relevant skills. A higher bonus means a greater likelihood of success. Mortal Reins employs a system of two ten-sided dice (2d10) rather than a single twenty-sided die (1d20), allowing for a player to roll 2 of the same number. When this occurs, in addition to passing or failing the task, the player has achieved a critical success or a complication. These critical rolls add additional consequences or benefits to the player’s action, such as breaking a piece of equipment or strengthening a created potion. In scenarios where time is of the essence, such as a combat or a debate, players forego the more freeform dialogue for brief, structured turns. These turns consist of 2 actions, allowing players to either move, attack or improve their situation in any combination of orders.
In order to keep things fun and balanced Mortal Reins uses a bounded accuracy system when making skill checks. This means that tasks are assigned a numerical value based on their difficulty -5 for an easy task for example- and the player must well above that number in order to succeed. In some cases, a player’s bonuses may make it impossible to fail the task, in which case no roll is required at all. This prevents failures on tasks that the character should reasonably be competent at. The game is by no means easy though. No character is superhuman, be they warriors or sorcerers. A crossbow bolt to the heart is going to kill anyone. No shrugging off lethal blows.
Most seasoned players of tabletop role-playing games (ttrpgs) are familiar with physical and magical combat. While that is definitely featured in this game system, there is an equal amount of focus on mental combat. This comes into play in situations of social conflict, and like physical combat is able to damage your character and their ability to reason and function. Unlike physical combat, which draws from a pool of health when damage is taken, each player has a pool of mind points which, when depleted, leaves a character in a state of automatic, instinctual responses to social stimuli until they are able to rest and recover.
All of the scenarios listed above can also be manipulated by players to produce more favorable results using Advantage points or, in vital situations, Fate points. Advantage points come and go over the course of a scene, fluctuating based on positioning, visibility, numbers, social standing, and a number of other factors that give one character an edge over another. In social situations Advantage points can also be gained by ”pulling strings.” Strings are a system of determining the amount of sway your character has over another, and are gained through meaningful interactions such as childhood memories or blackmail. Advantage points can be used to make minor manipulations to dice rolls and skill checks to succeed in situations where you may have otherwise failed, or to make a roll a critical, among other things. If you are in need of a miracle, however, Fate points have got you covered. Each player begins the game with just two Fate points which cannot be regained once depleted unless earned through some great feat, such as completion of a lifelong dream. Fate points allow characters to escape death, fail actions they otherwise would have succeeded on, or to replace the value of one of their ten-sided dice with an automatic fifteen.
Along with all of the rules and scenarios above, the Basic Rules section features guidelines for challenges, pursuit, flying creatures, and much much more. Several segments also contain examples of these rules in action for clarity, many of which were based on actual tabletop interactions between play testers.
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