Announcing the Release of the Hammercalled Rules Reference

Today we are pleased to announce the official release of the Hammercalled Rules Reference, the first product released for the Hammercalled Roleplaying Game due out in Summer of 2018.

This rules reference is available in .odt format, though it can also be viewed in browser at Dropbox directly (or downloaded). It is not currently finished, but is now playable, with the caveat that many systems are subject to change.

The focus of Hammercalled is to provide a fluid ruleset for multi-genre play, though its main focus as a system is to allow players to enjoy the unique Hammercalled setting, which will be released with the core game.

The Hammercalled rules system deviates from the norm set by many tabletop games by being built on the notion of custom-creating content, allowing players to specify a great deal of information about their character through four "layers" of design.

All characters are built upon a foundation of Attributes that are common to every character. This gives them a quick and easy point of comparison, and allows us to calculate details like their ability to resist damage and their combat initiative without too much difficulty.

The second layer of the character takes the form of Specializations, which can vary from simple proficiency in a few small tasks (like "I am able to fish and hunt") to more complicated professions and careers. Specializations are defined by "I Am Able To" statements, which allow the players to define what their characters are good at without worrying about a skill list, but without a total lack of constraint. These take the form of modifiers applied to Attribute rolls.

Then a third layer, Talents, provides characters with narrative-focused abilities and the ability to do things that do not neatly fit within the core mechanics. Sometimes this boosts Attributes, but in most cases the focus of Talents is on enabling characters to do other actions (Talents are currently fairly weak as a system at this stage in development; they are heavily setting-dependent and the rules reference is setting-agnostic, but there are still too few and we're looking for ideas to add more in).

The character is completed in a fourth layer, Gear. Unlike most games, Gear in Hammercalled is built from components. To simplify the creation process, the mathematics behind the creation of Gear are very simple; most changes give special properties, though weapons, armor, and tools can have damage, resistance, and bonus improvements as well.

Other features include:
• Streamlined combat, intended to take only a couple minutes per combat round (if even)
• PC-focused rolls; the GM rolls only in very rare circumstances, but the PCs drive the action.
• d100 system with a "blackjack" success method: take the 10s place of a roll to determine how well an action succeeds

We appreciate any feedback you can provide as Hammercalled continues its development process.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfdx54jrkiq4q72/Hammercalled%20Rules%20Reference.odt?dl=0