Rule Book - Fables of Fenorra

subterfuge and subtlety over heavy handed and overt
actions. While followers of the path of Shadow only
seek to further their own desires it is not uncommon
for a Shadow follower to work alongside or aid
others when it would work to their own advantage.
Tier 1 Magic Charm
Tier 2 Resist Bindings
Tier 3 Magic Drain
Tier 4 Shadow Cloak
Tier 5 Phase
Skills System
NERO characters advance by purchasing skills. Each
skill you learn allows you to perform a particular task
or group of tasks. Many can only be used a limited
number of times per day. Some skills allow you to
improve your abilities when the skill is bought
multiple times. Be sure to carefully read the skill
descriptions. Standard Reset In any case where a
skill can be used only a certain number of times per
day (such as Critical Slays or spells), the used skills
will not return to you until the next day at 6AM or 6
PM. This is known as a reset. These are called
“limited resets” and do not refresh craft/ production
skills, formal magic skills, or magic items.
The Skill System
NERO is a fantasy game. By that, we mean that it is a
compilation of rules and customs by which we allow
people to simulate doing things that they cannot
really do. The most obvious of these things is magic.
You should not be fooled into thinking that your
personal skill equates to the character skill it
represents. For instance, we have weapon skills. You
must have the One Handed edged weapon skill
before you are allowed to use a long sword. Many
people have asked if they can at least pick up a sword
and block blows with it—after all, anyone could
make the attempt, could they not? The answer is no,
in our game they cannot. The level of ability
represented by the skill bought can be considerably
different from that of your average player. It
represents a skill that has required hours of practice a
day for months to gain. When such an individual is
faced with a person totally unskilled in weapon use,
they would strike the person down with ease. The
player’s skill may be somewhat less than that of the
character, however, so the restrictions are used to
simulate the skills. Similarly, the proficiency system
represents a level of skill that the player might never
obtain. We use it as a way to artificially give a
player’s character, no matter what his or her real
world skill, an advantage over another whose
character is not as skilled. It allows a player of
indifferent skill to defeat or hold their own against a
player of much greater skill. This is, after all, a
fantasy. A person should be able to acquire skills that
allow their character to do things that they
themselves could not do in real life.
Spell Slots
There are special rules for spell acquisition that are
unlike most other skills in the game. When you
purchase a 1st level spell from the skill list, what you
are actually buying is one first level Spell Slot. You
cast any 1st level spell from this slot of the
appropriate school. Once that spell has been cast, the
slot will become empty and will remain that way
until the next limited, or standard reset, or until it is
refilled by other means. If you have several spell
slots of a given level, you can fill them with any
combination of spells (of the appropriate level) that
you know. You must buy spell slots in a proportional
pyramid fashion. If you wish to buy a spell slot of a
particular level, then you must have two more spell
slots of the level below. In other words, you must
have a minimum of one spell slot difference between
any adjoining levels and a maximum of two spell
slots difference. If you wish to buy your first 2nd
level spell slot, you must have at least two 1st level
spell slots already, but you may not have three. Once
you have purchased four spell slots of any particular
level, then you need not buy any additional spell slots
of that level to complete the pyramid. Imagine now
the pyramid being an obelisk with a broad support
and a pointed top (like the Washington Monument).
You may buy more than four spell slots per level but
there must always be at least as many spell slots
below that level in order to support the new amount.
Further, the pyramid must be constantly building,
which means that the level above must have only one
less than the amount you are buying. In other words,
to buy a fifth 2nd level spell slot, you must have a
fifth 1st level spell slot and a fourth 3rd level spell
slot.
Example of Pyramid Rules: Phillip the mage has a
3rd level spell slot, two 2nd level
spell slots, and three 1st level
spell slots. His pyramid is fine.
(figure 3-1)
He wants to learn a 4th level slot
eventually. He must build the
foundation of the pyramid so it
can support a 4th level spell.
First, he buys another 1st level
slot and then another 2nd level
slot. He must next purchase
another 3rd level slot (figure 3-
2).
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