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Basic Rules

Dice

Sword & Swarm is played with six-sided dice, often referred to as d6.

Tests

When asked to make a test, you roll a d6 in order to produce either a success or failure. When you are testing your own attributes, you roll successes by rolling equal to or lower than the number of your attribute. Conversely, when testing an opponent’s attribute, or an obstacle’s difficulty, you must roll higher than the attribute to get a success.

Advantage and Disadvantage

When you make a test with advantage, roll the die as normal - if the result is a failure, you may re-roll it once. When you make a test with disadvantage, roll the die as normal - if the result is a success, you must re-roll it once.

Bonuses and Penalties

Bonuses and penalties apply differently according to the test you are making. When you are testing your own attributes, bonuses and penalties apply to your attributes, temporarily raising or lowering them for the purpose of your roll. When you are testing an opponent’s attributes, the bonuses and penalties apply to your dice roll instead.

Bonuses range from +1 to +4, while penalties range from -1 to -4. Even if several sources contribute bonuses or penalties, they cannot get better than +4 or worse than -4.

Higher Attributes

Some creatures have high attributes that are above 5. A creature testing an attribute of 6 cannot possibly roll above 6 with a d6, and thus would only get successes. In Sword & Swarm, if a creature has attributes of 6 or higher, then they also have a Confirm Attribute featured in brackets next to their regular attribute. Confirm Attributes are 5 lower than their actual attribute. Confirm Attributes are only used when someone rolls a 6 on a test. When this happens, roll a second test against the Confirm Attribute. If that second test is a success, your first test counts as a success too.

This rule is in place such that units with 6 or higher in an attribute can actually fail on a test, and that if any other units attempt to test the same attribute, they can actually succeed too.

Proficiency Tests

Some proficiencies call upon making tests. When testing a proficiency, you roll 2d6 + Attribute Modifier + Proficiency Ranks. If the result is equal or higher than the Difficulty, then the proficiency test is a success. Which attribute to use for the test depends on the proficiency. For example, Architecture tests uses the Runes attribute. If the result was below the Difficulty and one of the dice showed a 1, it counts as a serious failure. Rolling 1 on each die results in a disastrous failure.

Attribute modifiers are found on the following table:

Attribute	Modifier
0	-3
1	-2
2	-2
3	-1
4	0
5	+1
6	+2
7	+2
8+	+3

Typical Proficiency Test Difficulties are:

Difficulty	Description
6	Simple tasks that most characters are expected to succeed with.
8	Challenging tasks that characters with no talent or skill are likely to fail.
10	Difficult tasks that only talented or skilled characters can be expected to succeed regularly.
12	Tasks that only masters or exceptional characters can reliably succeed.
14	Tasks that only masters or exceptional characters can expect to succeed, but not often.
16+	Herculean tasks that require monumental effort, talent and skill. Unlikely for even exceptional characters to succeed.

Unit Attributes

In Sword & Swarm, characters are defined by a set of attributes, proficiencies and traits. In this section, attributes are defined in more detail.

Each character has the attributes Mallet, Key, Runes, Coronet, Star, Shield and Boots. Attributes can range from 0 to 10, but most creatures have something from 2 to 5. Note that some equipment and traits increases specific attributes while using them - these do not count as bonuses, but rather as the new actual attribute your character benefits from. If a character has 0 in an attribute, it is unable to act in any capacity that would involve that attribute.

Mallet is a measure of a character’s strength, athleticism and endurance.

Key is a measure of a character’s dexterity, bodily precision and reflexes.

Runes is a measure of the character’s spirit and knowledge.

Coronet is a measure of the character’s leadership, respect and authority.

Star is your morale and vigor, which is determined by the class you pick and levels you gain. If it drops to 0, the character becomes defeated and demoralized. If the character drops below 0 Star, it risks death.

Shield is your capability to protect yourself against harm and adversity, which is based on armor and traits you choose. Shield’s starting value is 0.

Boots is your capability to move on the table. This attribute starts at 6, but is reduced by encumbrance. See the ‘Movement and Encumbrance’ section in the Adventuring document.