Immortal System
Base Concepts
Characters in Immortal have 6 basic stats, each representing by a colour. The 6 colours, along with a seventh 'Clear' colour is called the Halo. Each is rated in motes of Immaculum. Clear immaculum is also known as Free Immaculum (FI).
Each colour represents a specific attribute of the character. The colours, and their associated attribute are as follows:
| Colour | Characteristic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Red | Resolve | Willpower, and force of intellect |
| Orange | Force | Strength |
| Yellow | Expertise | Dexterity and basic control |
| Green | Movement | Speed and quickness |
| Blue | Awareness | Perception |
| Violet | Resilience | Stamina, and resistence |
Each halo colour is rated between 0 and 15. Normal humans range between 0 and 5. 0 represents a very weak individual. 2 is the average value. 4 is world-class, while 5 is a legendary level. As starting immortals all halo colours are limited to 5. Higher values are covered under advancement.
Basic System
The basic system is a stat/atribute + skill + die roll. High rolls are better. Generally this will be against a target number. A D10 is rolled, note however a the highest possible result is a '9'. This is known as a Hostile. The skill bonus generally ranges from -5 to +5. A character with no skill has a -5, otherwise the bonus is equal to the number of ranks (normally ranging up to 5). Legacies have no penalty for being unskilled.
Generally speaking the higher above the result indicates a more complete success. A roll 0-2 points above the target is a marginal success. Genarally the maximum result is 15 or more above, for a complete overwhelming success.
A roll of '0' is called a NULL (I'll call it a botch too). This indicates a critical fumble.
Bob wants to climb a wall, he has two motes in his Green halo, and one rank in Climbing. The GM says the difficulty of climbing the wall is 6. Bob rolls a d10, and gets a 4. His total roll is a 7 (= 2[Green] + 1[Climbing] + 4[roll]). He gets a marginal success. The GM tells Bob his character just scrambles up the wall, but makes a lot of noise doing it. Thankfully Bob wasn't in a hurry.
Complications
Automatic Success
Like most systems Immortal has an automatic success rule. To achieve an automatic success the character must be in a situation where he can take his time (ie not in the middle of battle).
To use the automatic success rule the immortals stat and skill bonus and situation bonuses must be greater then or equal to the resistence (target number). If so the immortal achieves a sucess equal to his rank in the skill.
Alice is trying to pick the lock to her old diary. She has a yellow halo of 3, and two ranks in lock picking. The GM assigns a target number of 3 to the lock. Alice applies the automatic success rule, and opens the lock with a rank 2 success.
Resisted Rolls
Resisted rolls are effectively the same as a normal roll except the difficulty is not fixed, but rather is the result of an opponents roll. It is worthwhile to note that the roll does not always have to be the same for both opponents. Additionally in certain cases one opponent may get a bonus or a penalty based on the situation.
Bob and Alice have come to blows [It was all caused by their bad implementation of SSL, but that is another story]. Bob decides to swing his sword in an attempt to bring the argument to a resolution. Alice in a fit of self-preservation decides to attempt to dodge.
Bob has a sword skill of 3, and a yellow halo of 3. He rolls a 7 resulting in total roll of 13. Alice now rolls, getting an 1, adding her dodge skill (4) and her green halo of (3). Her final result is an 8. This means Bobs has hit, and 5 (His 13 - Alice's 8) is used to determine his success.
Multiple Hostiles
Sometimes when a character attempts an action there are other complications, for instance shooting a target at night, or a running while injured. In this case the character will face an additional hostiles. The first action (the thing you are really trying to do) is known as the Primary Hostile. Any others are called Secondary Hostiles.
Trent is trying to climb over the wall after Bob. The primary hostile is a Yellow climbing hostile. Trent has a skill of 2 in climbing, and has a 4 in his yellow halo. The GM tells him it a difficulty of 9 to climb.
Additionally he has an Severe wound from an earlier fight with a Alice. This puts him a rank 3 pain hostile. His red halo is 3, and he has 2 ranks in the Adrenaline legacy
Once all appropriate hostiles have been determined, they are rolled. If all hostiles succeed the action suceeds and final the result of the primary hostile determines the degree of success. If the primary roll fails the action fails, no matter what the other results.
Trent's player needs to roll a 3 or more to succeed the climb roll. A roll of 1 or 2 will be a failure, while a NULL is an automatic failure. He rolls and gets an 8. All up this 14, succeeding by 5.
If any secondary hostiles fail the character has failed in his action. However the player may choose to sacrifice points from the primary roll to add to the secondaries so they succeed. Note degree of success on secondaries is irrelevent, the only thing important is success or failure.
Trent's player now rolls for the pain hostile. He rolls a 2. Together with Adrenaline of 2 and a red halo of 3 this gives a total of 7. Trent subtracts two from the 5 he succeeded the climbing roll by. His final result for the climbing roll is thus a 3.
Legacies
Legacies are powers generally possesed only by immortals, and the rarest of twilights. They allow certain secondary hostiles to be overcome automatically, otherwise they provide a bonus to overcoming the hostile.
If the hostile rank is (ie difficulty level/3) is less than or equal to the rank possesed by the character the hostile is defeated automatically.
After a few minutes Trent has had time to heal the worst of his wounds. His worst injury is Imparing wound (rank 2). He has two ranks in Adrenaline. Thus he automatically passes any pain hostile at that level, with no need to roll. This means no chance of rolling a null, and no chance of reducing his success on primary actions.
Otherwise it provides a bonus equal to the rank of the hostile, like a normal skill.
Legacies have a complexity of 5, although most prides teach certain legacies, resulting in a reduced complexity of 4 for Pride members being taught within the pride. Cost for mortals is judged on a case by case basis, but never less then 5. See the skills section for information translating complexity into a memory cost.