Basic Mechanics

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.3

Terra Magia is a modern fantasy set in the world of Terra. A world reminiscent of our own except where magic has always existed, and technology has grown alongside it. Humans are not the only sapient race in this world, as Oni, Vanara, and Anzu also populate the land. While set in the modern day, magic has allowed for the development of tools beyond our current possibilities. Adventure through Terra to master magic, create new technology, and explore the mysterious dungeons found within the standing stone gods known as Titans.

This core book contains the rules and data necessary to play and create any campaign, characters, spells or items. It will walk you through the basic and advanced mechanics of combat, guide you through the character creation processes and any auxiliary mechanics that affect a character after its creation. Some setting details such as the regions of the world, titans, and some of the beasts that inhabit it. For more specifics about nations/cities in Terra look for “Quests From” books which have a bundles of campaigns that take you through out the regions of Terra.

A rule of thumb in Terra is that thespecific supersedes the broad. meaning that if in a situation where two rules are contradictory, the rule that is more specific is the one to follow. This can occur due to perks or spells having specific outcomes that the base rules might disagree with. If this is the case go with those of the spell or perk as they are more specific.

While there are plenty of detailed mechanics and rules for just about any situation, don’t feel hampered by these. Try to see these as creative assets to have an easier time creating the components of your campaign, useful but never mandatory. The most important aspect of tabletop gaming is the fact that it is a collaborative storytelling experience, one where the GM shares their vision with the players and then the player helps turn that vision into something that even the GM never expected. The mechanics of Terra are intended to facilitate this by offering freedom but with a foundation complex enough that all situations can be simulated.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.6

There are four things to consider when rolling any action: the dice number, the threshold, the stats and Skills. To determine the outcome of an action you add up the number rolled with your stat number plus corresponding skill dice you may have rolled, if this sum is equal to or greater than the threshold for an action then it is a success, if it’s less, then it’s a failure. The Stats and Skills are further elaborated on in their own section, but in short they represent the characters mental and physical abilities. These are determined at character creation and raised by gaining levels.

When an action that requires a roll gets defended against with another characters roll then the winner of such interactions will be the character who had the highest degree of success on their roll. If that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense don’t worry it’ll be more explicitly explained in a later section.

In Terra the dice of choice is a 20-sided dice (d20), it’s rolled to determine success for all actions, with the rest of the dice in a typical tabletop set getting their time to shine in niche situations such as damage calculations or luck rolls.

The second most important die in this game is the d4. It represents your level of training in a skill. If you're untrained you roll no d4s but if you're trained in a skill you can roll up to 3d4s which is added to your d20 roll.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.7

The threshold for an action is the determined difficulty of any action as dictated by the GM. They are categorized as Easy, Average, Hard, or Extreme. Easy threshold is 10 and represents actions that are nearly automatic successes but that still warrant a roll in order to determine Degrees of Success. Average threshold is 15 and represent most actions in a day to day experience that require some focus to do. Hard threshold is 20 and should represent tasks that only trained individuals can consistently do. Then the Extreme threshold is 25+ and represents actions that only incredibly skilled individuals even have the chance to succeed!

While the baseline thresholds remain constant after the GM states it, the chance of success or failure can be altered for a specific roll by various modifiers that are indicated on items and spells. The most common of these modifiers comes from armors and weapons. Armor adds a buffer to the threshold with their Armor Rating,

This means you have to roll higher to succeed at hurting someone with armor. On the other hand if someone has a good enough weapon it might be able to simply bypass some amount of the threshold needed to actually hurt the target, this is known as Armor Penetration. These mechanics will be further elaborated on in their own sections and are just the most common form of this interaction since armor and weapons are far more permanent fixtures of a character than just a spell.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.8

When attempting an action, it doesn’t simply succeed or fail, there are degrees of success and failure. This represents more explicitly how well or how poorly the action was done. The purpose of these degrees of failure/success is to allow for more narrative flexibility when playing by expressing the difference between a slight misstep and stumble vs falling flat on your face in a pile of dung. These narrative decision are best made between player and GM as you work together to create the most impacting narrative for your particular story.

To determine the degrees of failure or success you merely need to count how much above or below the threshold your roll ended up being. In other words, find the difference between your roll and the threshold. 

Matching the threshold exactly counts as a success with no degrees. This means that whatever you were attempt will indeed happen but it is up to the discretion of the GM as to what it means to only barely succeed in these situations. For example matching a threshold exactly on an attack only deals half damage since it is only a glancing strike meaning it worked just not as well as you hoped.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.9

The last thing that needs to be considered when rolling is that there will be moments when players have set up a scenario so well that the following events will fall assuredly in their favor. To reward such planning and preparation the GM should allow them some advantage dice to rolling, the more well prepared the more advantage dice they should receive.

Mechanically speaking these advantages come in the form of additional d4s (one per advantage) to their roll increasing their chances of success! However, just as players can make inspired choices they can also make some of the dumbest choices mankind has ever seen. In these situations they deserve to be given some disadvantage dice. These are also d4 dice, except that it is subtracted from your total. Just like any other part of a table top game, advantage and disadvantage dice should be seen as a collaborative mechanic that players and GM should be willing to discuss during a session, so if you’re a player don’t be afraid to ask the GM to reward what you see as good planning.

Advantage and disadvantage can also be seen just adding and subtracting d4s, so if you have a d4 that you add to a roll from you skill dice pool then a disadvantage just removes the skill dice so you end up not rolling any d4s.

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.10

When out of combat the main source of healing is just time. There are two kinds of rests Quick and Full. Both of a Quick Rest and Full Rest allow you to heal some percentage of HP, VP or MP, and even some Ailments. There are also Perk abilities that require you take a rest before being able to use it again. While rests are the primarly source of healing outside of combat, resting is not enough to heal the consequences of death or other injuries from near death experiences. Characters must sleep once per day or else they are afflicted with 5 Severity of Exhaustion.

Quick Rest

• A Quick Rest is a 30 minute period of time during which a character does not partake in strenuous phsyical activity. The character can spend time walking around, preparing and even working on small projects. On a Quick Rest the character heals, 50% VP, and 25% MP. A Quick Rest can be take even with armor on.

Full Rest

• A Full Rest is an 8 hour period of time during which a character does not partake in strenuous physical activity. At least 6 hours have to be spent sleeping. On a Quick Rest the character heals, 100% VP, 50% MP, and 25% HP. Unless stated by the armor it is difficult to sleep and take a full rest while in armor, Players must roll a Hard Willpower check to see if they can over come the discomfort of sleeping in armor. If this check is failed you only gain the benefits of a Quick Rest. 

Source: Terra Magia Core Rules p.11

When crafting you can either create something from scratch or modify an existing item with no Mods on it. To craft or mod an item you need have a blueprint for that item/mod. Blueprints can be bought for a quarter the price of the original item/mod, or they can be made by rolling an Average Logic or Intuition check on an item that you have access to for at least one Quick Rest. The other requirement for crafting is to have materials equal to half the cost of the item and/or mod. Once you have the material and a blueprint you can roll a Logic or Intuition check to perform the crafting.

Threshold and Time 

The Threshold for crafting is dependant on the level of the item. Level 1 items have an Average Threshold, level 2 items have a Hard Threshold, and level 3 items have an Extreme Threshold. Failing the roll causes a loss of half the materials used. All items start off taking 5 days to complete. When you roll your crafting check each degree of success reduces the crafting down by 1 day, down to a minimum of 1 quick rest.

Material

Materials are categorized as Poor, Average, or Premium quality. When crafting an item, the level of quality of the materials determines whether you have advantage or disadvantage to the crafting roll. Poor materials give a Disadvantage to crafting rolls, Average materials have no Advantage or Disadvantage, and Premium materials give an Advantage to the crafting roll.

Only Average materials can be bought from the shop, but all can be found in game, or Salvaged from other items. To Salvage materials you have to roll a Logic or Intuition check to get materials. A roll that over comes an Easy threshold receives Poor quality material equal to half the price of the scavenged item. Overcoming an Average threshold gives Average quality material and a Hard threshold gives premium quality material. Overcome an Extreme threshold will give premium material equal the full cost of the item being salvaged.