Butchers and Beasties

Rules

Rolls.
This game uses six sided dice (referred to as D6 from here on).
You make rolls for damage, effects and for deciding an uncertain outcome, rolling 2D6. When rolling add to
the result;

+relevant stat to roll (STR, DEX or WIL)

+X equal to weapon size during an attack
+1 if aided by an ally
+1 if you have appropriate equipment to the roll

If you are in a position that heavily favors you during a roll you have an advantage and can reroll the lowest
dice and keep the new result; While if you’re in one that heavily un-favors you, you have a disadvantage
which makes you reroll the highest dice and keep the new result.

The target for a normal roll is 7, the target changes based on the difficulty of a roll. Rolling 2 under the target
results in a partial success, where you succeed in your action but with an unforeseen outcome as well.
Rolling a two 6’s is an overwhelming success, massively succeeding in your task.

Items.
Apply dice roll bonuses when an item provides an advantage to a situation. I.e. axe gives +1 dice when
cutting something wooden or has an effect on activation that consumes the item such as with a healing
salve
//item list here.

Using beast treasures, in addition to upgrading your weapons and armor, you can create items to use on
jobs.
Salve, it protects from the appropriate element or ailment associated with the beast it's made from; or if they
had none, apply a magical shield for the round adding armor equal to the size of the beast.
Dart, it deals damage with the appropriate element or ailment associated with the beast it's made from up to
the size of the beast; or if they had none, deal extra damage up to the size of the beast
Trap, it applies the appropriate element or ailment associated with the beast its made from up to the size of
the beast; or if they had none, deal extra damage up to the size of the beast
Character inventory consists of 2 hand slots, body slots, 6 pack slots. Each role brings with it a base pack
of items you start every job with for free;

Wrangler. Two weapons, Wound salve, Rope, Bait

Hound. Weapon, 2 ailment darts, Ailment Salve, Jaw Trap
Caster. Weapon, Casting focus, 3 casting materials
// change these to fit new weapon and armor system

Weapons and Armor.

Weapon and armor tied to roles, wrangler having the strongest but being the slowest, and hound being the
highest speed. Alchemist has the lowest armor and damage.
Damage Armor Speed

Wrangler 4 4 2

Hound 3 2 4

Alchemist 2 3 3

Each role has a set damage, armor and speed. These can be altered using weapon and armor tags. Each
character can only have one weapon and one armor tag at a time with the exception of ranged.
Traps come off of half of the damage stat.

*sort out with new armor bit in weapons tab.

**Choose to use an amount of armor when rolling for defence, check if rolling for defence is good.

Weapons and Armor can be augmented with beast parts to help shrug off or deal ailments and damage as
well as add new capabilities based on the beast parts added.
*Beast tags occupy a separate slot?, so one regular and one beast

Wrangler tags
Weapon
1. Heavy, +1 damage -1 to hit
2. Light, -1 damage +1 to hit
3. Slicing, +2 bleed ailment
4. Breaker, +1 die to armored and fortified parts
5. Surging, Move half speed rounded up towards attack target
6. Defensive, mitigate +1 damage on defending actions
Armor
1. Heavy, +1 armor -1 speed
2. Light, -1 armor +1 speed
 3. Barbed, +1 die to grapple related rolls

Hound tags
Weapon
1. Heavy, +1 damage -1 to hit
2. Light, -1 damage +1 to hit
3. Injecting, +1 chosen ailment
4. Exploiting, +1 die to pinning and weak point rolls
5. Tethering, choose to become tethered to a target on a successful attack. When tethered you cannot
move more than 3 spaces away from the target.
6. Surging, Move half speed rounded up towards attack target
Ranged, your attacks gain a range of 4. Take another tag alongside this.

Armor
1. Heavy, +1 armor -1 speed
2. Light, -1 armor +1 speed
3. Pocketed, +2 inventory space

Alchemist tags
Weapon
1. Heavy, +1 damage -1 to hit
2. Light, -1 damage +1 to hit
3. Repelling, your attacks can push a target back 1 space on a critical success
4. Retreating, Move half speed rounded up away from attack target
5. Harvesting, your attacks will harvest a small drop on a critical success
6. Injecting, +1 chosen ailment
Ranged, your attacks gain a range of 4. Take another tag alongside this.

Armor
1. Heavy, +1 armor -1 speed
2. Light, -1 armor +1 speed
3. Escape specialism, when attacked move half your speed rounded up away from the attacker

Ailment.
Each creature has an ailment count, this is their resistance to different ailments shown as a certain number.
When they are successfully damaged with a source that deals ailment more times than their count, they
become inflicted.
Some weapon augments or items may have synergistic effects with certain ailments and boost their effects.

Ailments last for 4 rounds when inflicted, they can be extended by reapplying the effect but do not stack.
A beast can only be inflicted by 3 ailments at a time. Applying a new one will overwrite the oldest.
 - Burn, deals your damage per round.
- Thermal shock,, deals half your weapon damage immediately after an attack, attack with burn on
frozen target or with freeze on burnt target.
- Frozen, +2 damage when targeting an armored part, +1 to down.
- Muddied, the beast performs one less action each round.
- Shocked, at the start of a round the gm rolls a d6, the beast cannot act on the corresponding section.
- Soak, soaked beasts add +2 instead of +1 to their ailment count
- Poisons, do one of the following, Decide before a job.
- Stamina Drain, at the start of a round the gm rolls a d6, on a 1 the beast skips their Last
action.
- Paralysis, the beast loses access to a part and the features that part allows. If no part is
available then works as shocked
- Down, causes the beast to be unable to perform tactics and ranged actions for a round, not counted
as part of the soak bonus ailments.
- Break, Ranks down fortified to armored and armored to normal when the count hits 6, not counted as
part of the soak bonus ailments.
*Rework a little, mostly around soak and fall

Elements.
Attacks and spells can gain different elements that will give bonus effects as well as interact with
elementally inclined monsters in advantageous ways

- Fire. causes burn, nullifies freeze and inflicts steam on a soaked monster, ending the soak ailment
- Ice. causes freeze, nullifies burn
- Earth. +1 damage and -1 to attack roll, Inflicts muddy
- Electric. +1 to attack roll, inflicts shock
- Water. Inflicts soak, soaked monsters add +2 instead of +1 to their ailment count

Healing.
Healing is done through Salves, they are a medicine applied onto the skin. they can be crafted on a job
during a preparation action.
Healing Salves restore 3 health in combat, and 6 out of combat.
Ailment Salves heal your ailment :).
*make a down and out/ scar table when dealt lots of damage or hit zero
**rework a tad to fit changes
***preparation actions for explore phase, detail
Rewards.
After a hunt you are paid a certain amount for the request as well as gain Xd3 or Xd6 beast (insert the
beast’s name here) treasures to spend on upgrading or creating weapons, armor and items
After your first job your rank increases. This allows you to increase a stat (except Butcher points) by 1, after
this, every 2/ 3 jobs, increase your rank.
//this is the system of progression. Ultimately group discretion, be clear on this part.
*go over this again and work to fit new design
**also reword

Exploration.
Roll 1d6+1, this is the amount of relevant areas present during a hunt. These areas connect to each other
through trails, tunnels, rivers or the such. Designate one area as a nest, a place the beast returns to and roll
on the land feature chart for each area.
*work on this

Explore Turns.
Each turn is 10 minutes, this is the amount of time it takes to travel between areas and to perform a prep
action.

Preparation actions.
- Prepare a trap
- Set bait, attracts to a certain area
- Forage for supplies, gain herbs for salve and ailment crafting and natural traps
- Study a Beast, risky.

Environmental hazards.
Parts of the environment you can use to your advantage or can be used to your detriment by beasts, some
examples are.
- Water: If a creature falls in they can only move 1 increment, -1 Die to actions.
- Tall structure/ Short structure: Beasts can be baited into crashing into structures, canceling their next
action

*overhaul this, add in some proper wilderness exploration stuff. Look at wyrd and wilds exploration
Combat

Proximity.
The battlefield is measured from the enemy in a proximity radius. You are marked on the target beast’s
proximity, and movement represents you moving around it. The proximity has 4 ranges, these are;

Close - you are right up next to the beast

Near - you are several steps from the beast
Far - you are a short jog from the beast
Distant - you are a field away from the beast

*playtest skirmishing on a chess board

Action bar.
Combat is split into rounds, each of these rounds are explicitly planned into 6 slots. The players and the GM
discuss their actions and what they will do. Each action takes a set amount of action slots. Some
techniques mention a slow round, this means to use this skill you can only act in the last 3 slots of the round
mentioned, skipping the first 3 slots.

You cannot react during these skipped slots.

After the planning phase, the creature with the highest DEX stat goes first each slot of the round.
**rework

1 slot actions
- Move
- Interact/ Reload
- Defend
- Role actions
- Basic techniques

2 slot actions
- Attack
- Evade
- Throw
- Grit Techniques
Reactions.
Reactions cost 1 Grit to do, the action you decide to use will have its cost lowered by one and you must have
enough action points remaining to use it. Grit persists through rounds and is lost at the end of a job.
*rename

Fleeing and chasing.

To run away from a beast one player needs to be at the distant increment from a monster, they roll dice up to
the beast’s size dice. If the highest number rolled is 5 or 6, you successfully escape to an adjacent area.

The beast however can flee whenever it wants to, it is up to the GM to warn the players that it will attempt to
do this, at the end of the next round after the indication the beast will flee.
*change with exploration and wilderness changes

Attacking.
When rolling to attack you roll your 2D6, and take the highest roll out of them, apply that as your attack roll.
If you are attacking with two weapons, reroll the lowest dice if you want and take that result.

Standard roll
1 No Damage

2-4 Half Damage

5-6 Full Damage

Multiple 6’s Full Damage + Half Damage

Armored roll
1-2 No Damage

3-4 Half Damage

5-6 Full Damage

Multiple 6’s Full Damage + Half Damage

Fortified roll
1-3 No Damage

4-5 Half Damage

 6 Full Damage

Multiple 6’s Full Damage + Half Damage

*have a rework after playtest

Character Creation

Stats.
HEALTH - how not unconscious you are
● Begins at 10
Grit - A resource that rises in battle: gain one per round. Representing a character storing energy. Spent to
React and on Grit Techniques
● Measured on a D6, add a new D6 every 2 levels starting at level 3.

STR - Strength and physical drive.

DEX - Dexterity and cunning.
WIL - Brain power and planning skills.
● Starts with a 0, 1 and 2 to allocate to each.
Modifiers : -2, -1 , 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5, 6
( add or subtract the modifier from an appropriate roll, die count cannot go below 1)

Roles.
Your character's role decides how your character engages on the field and provides them with tools to
succeed and support each other.

Wrangler
Weapon masters who take the brunt of a beast’s bite during the confrontation.
Short and long ranged variations.
Tank, Brawler and Shooter

Grit gain.
Whenever you take damage, gain 1 grit.

Role actions.
Parry. mitigate damage once per round.
Taunt. redirect a beast's next action towards you once per round.
Revenge. If you have been damaged, replace no damage with half damage on your next attack roll
Techniques
Cleave. An attack that deals bonus damage to broken parts.
Charge. At the cost of taking a slow round, increase the damage of an attack by 2.
Shield. Redirect an attack or effect aimed at an ally to you, take half of the damage or effect.
Grapple. STR roll to grab onto and stay held onto a beast, once grappled you can;
Move. Drag or push the beast in a direction.
Rodeo. Share spaces with the beast and you can down the beast if you deal 15 damage during this
state.
Reroll STR at the end of a round with increasing difficulty for every action taken while grappling.

Butcher Techniques. 3 grit

Butchers Cut. Deal double damage to a part. Sever if the total damage dealt to the part is more than 3
quarters of its total HP.
Hyper Charge. Skip this turn and take a slow round next round, deal triple damage. Roll this attack with +1
dice.
Absolute Defense. Completely negate an attack aimed at you or an ally in the same increment as you.
*A severed part cannot be restored by rest and adds 1 treasure to the post-job reward.
**Rework cleave, butchers cut and severing

Hound
Hounds are behavior and tracking specialists who aid in keeping track of and recognising weak points to
exploit.
Ranger, Trapper and Researcher

Grit gain.
Whenever you expose or make a weak point, gain 1 Grit

Role Actions
Study. Take a slow round to study the beast. Gain 1 study token, to a maximum of 3.
Ailment knives. Choose an ailment to gain 4 dipped throwing knives at the beginning of a job.
Opportunist. If the monster is inflicted with an ailment, deal +1 dmg.

Techniques
Place Trap. Throw a trap down, only two traps can be set this way at a time.
Break. STR roll to create a forced weak point on a beast for the next round.
Pin. DEX roll to immobilize a beast for a round, automatically succeeds if a weak point has been made.
Inform. Spend a study token to add 1 die to one of your own or an ally's rolls
*Weak points take full damage on all successful attacks and double damage on a multiple 6
**rework ^

Butcher techniques. 2 grit

Expose. Spend 2 study tokens to open a weak point for the next 2 rounds
Ail Trap. Throw down a trap that inflicts an ailment for 2 rounds, only one trap can be placed this way at a
time.
*something

Alchemist
Battlefield alchemists who synthesize and support their allies from the field.

Grit gain.
You are a metaphorical grit battery, every turn gain 3 grit instead of 1

Role actions
Synthesis. create item from nothing to help yourself and your party
Share. You can transfer up to 2 grit to an adjacent ally once per round
Imbue. sacrifice a beast part imbue a weapon or armor with temporary effects for 1 round

Techniques
Flash synthesis. Create an item at half the speed with half the potency
Reverse property. Reverse the effect of an item, healing to harming etc.
Recharge. Gain 2 Grit

Butcher Techniques. 4 grit

Dual Synthesis. Synthesize double the items, add 1 to the time taken.
Concoct. Mix a Concoction for yourself or one of your allies
Elixynthesis. Sacrifice 3 beast parts create an elixir that either;
- Heals (balanced amount to heal)
- rids an ailment entirely
- provides temporary immunity to the beasts ailment
Super imbue. sacrifice a beast part to imbue a weapon or armor with temporary effects for longer

synthesis chart
1 action
- healing salve
- ailment salve
- ailment knives

2 actions
- weapon oils (temporary effects)
- armor coatings (temporary effects)
- healing salve+
- ailment salve+
- ailment knives+
Concoction
Generic
- *drink that boosts damage or armor once and then has a negative, maybe lower speed for a round or
2
Wrangler
- Iron heart, Mitigates damage for a round, takes all mitigated damage in 2 rounds.
- Indomitable Spirits, gain a bonus to your grappling for 2 rounds.
Hound
- Hunters whisky, your traps deal 1 or 2 more damage for 2 rounds
- Pinner pint, your next pin automatically succeeds, but the one after that is rolled with a disadvantage
Alchemist
- Clarity ail, your next synthesis takes one less action to complete but the one after that takes one
more action
- imbrew, your next imbues effect is boosted but the one after it has a 2 in 6 chance of failing
-

Beast Builder
Simplified into this, no longer as bulky or clunky

Sizes
Split up into size class, determines dice roll and health
Small; 2 action or attack, movement, 14hp. 3 dmg
Medium; 2 action or attack, movement, 30hp. 4 dmg
Large: 3 actions or attack, movement, 46hp. 5 dmg
Elder: 3 action or attack, movement, 60hp (unique, 2 classifications). 6 dmg
*Health adjust based on playtesting, small monsters shouldn't be too easy to kill nor too fast and so on.

Classification
Decides the main traits and tactics;
Winged; flight, dive, grab and drop
Burrowing, Digging, ambush, drag under
Pack leader; pack of beasts, pack tactics
Wanderer; hardened, learning, unique tactics
Apex; dangerous, unique tactics

Disaster; Elder only, detrimental effect somehow

Pinnacle; Elder only, unique tactics
Abstract; Elder only, unique tactics, zone of influence
Parts
Each part of a beast has a damage threshold that can be hit to hinder a beasts abilities, they can be restored
with the beast retreating and resting for long enough

Always;
Fore legs
Hind Legs
Tail
Wings

Special;
Horns
Spines
Specialized feature

Actions and tactics

The beasts actions are split into two types, instant and wind up.
Instant actions are things like moving and simple attacks,
While wind up actions take longer to perform and are more dangerous. Things like breathing fire or charging.

Beast tactics are a collection of actions that will be performed in a certain order with a large pay off at the
end, but can be interrupted to stop this usually by attacking but other disruptive means will mostly work
also. Think monster hunter over the top monster attacks

//
Basic actions;
Attack
Move
Reaction
Unique feature

Example tactic; grab and drop

1 action - take flight
1 action - challenging STR roll against target
2 actions - gain height
1 action - drop

Testing
Combination things between roles.
Like combo techniques or something, dunno what yet but shit like that.
The way the classes are built and grit works naturally does this.

Also throwing items at each other and at monsters, that's an action now

// work to add secondary objectives, not just beast slaying.

- Repel a beast/ study a beast
- Break/sever a certain part
- Protect a group from beast attacks
- Gather resources in the area

The addition of things like this means i need to work on fleeing/escaping and repel rules

Steer this more to a sandbox adventure game with monsters on the prowl outside the safety of towns.

The focus of this game is to emulate monster hunter to an extent

Test team size 3 (players can be 2 to 6, that sounds about right before it sounds broken. Also scaling for
players past 3?)