Open4E:Main Page

Open4E

This system is intended to be a streamlined and open tactical RPG. The primary source of inspiration is Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition.

Our system goals:

• A unified class design system, with simplified hybriding and multiclassing
• Better balance between power choices within a class
• Smoother progression between levels, and an elimination of "speedbump" and "tax" feats

Sections

The Core Mechanic

As you play your character, you will describe things that you want to do. The DM’s job is to help determine what happens as a result of your actions. In this game, all of these situations are resolved through a single mechanic, called a check: you roll a D20, add modifiers based on your competency or the situation, and announce the result. The Dungeon Master (DM) will compare this check result to a difficulty class (DC) based on the situation and the inherent difficulty of what you’re trying to accomplish. In many common situations, the process for determining the check modifier and DC have been worked out in detail, but always remember that you and the DM can decide to arbitrate situations that haven’t been specifically spelled out in the rules, or modify the check or DC of well-established rules based on special circumstances.

Difficulty

Some tasks are easier to perform than others. In general, the base DC of a task will be one of five numbers.

• Trivial tasks have a DC of 5. These are actions that, in general, the DM should just declare that you succeed at rather than having you roll at all. A DM might require a roll on a trivial task in extraordinary circumstances.

• Easy tasks have a DC of 10. These are actions that an average, untrained person is expected to have an even chance of accomplishing successfully. Examples: walking eight hours along a paved road without rest, assembling a puzzle, applying bandages to a wound, remembering the name of the capital city of a neighboring province.

• Average tasks have a DC of 15. These are actions that the average person can pull off with some luck, and which a competently trained person is expected to have an even chance of accomplishing. Examples: walking eight hours through a hilly woodland without rest, assembling a model ship, sewing up a wound, remembering the name of the capital city of every province in your country. If no task difficulty is specified, assume that the task has an average DC.

• Hard tasks have a DC of 20. These actions require a good amount of expertise, training, and natural ability to pull off well, and are only accomplishable through extraordinary luck otherwise. Examples: carving a path through a densely overgrown jungle for eight hours without rest, assembling a clockwork pocketwatch, digging a barbed arrowhead out of a wound without causing more damage, remembering the name of every capital city of every country in the world.

• Legendary tasks have a DC of 25. These are tasks that a normal person might accomplish once in a lifetime, and which are noteworthy even for heroes. Examples: assembling a working clockwork model of the solar system, performing open-heart surgery without the aid of magic or modern medicine, remembering the name of every city in your country with a population of 50 or more.

• Impossible tasks have a DC of 30 or higher. These tasks seem utterly impossible to perform, but the truly gifted might pull them off once in a lifetime. Examples: assembling a thinking, feeling clockwork man, reviving the dead, remembering the name of every city the world and a specific historical fact about each of them.