Caves and Creatures
Caves and Creatures is one of the most popular games on Demrefor. It is a creative role-playing game that utilises various amounts of 6-sided dice. Thought to be originally invented by humans, there is evidence that it has existed on Demrefor since ancient times, with the rules changing and adapting throughout the years to suit the preferences of the era.
Game Mechanic Basics
Caves and Creatures is a complicated game with many different ways to customise the experience. Though there are set “official” rules, many groups will change or ignore the commonly recognised versions of the game and adapt it to their own needs. Because of this, way that modern Caves and Creatures is played varies widely from group-to-group, with some campaigns being more combat-focused, some being more story-based, and some groups still preferring to use it as an opportunity to meet up and socialise with each other.
All games need at least three players, with one of these players being the “Cave Creator,” The Cave Creator is the player in charge of organising the game, story, and other players, and is the final-say on things such as the rules and outcome of creative choices.
Players of the game will make characters that they control during a session; most players will only have one character each, though each the Cave Creator will usually control multiple characters (NPCs) in order to create the story and world.
Characters
Caves and Creatures features a few made-up fantasy races such as elves, dwarves, and cyclops, though the majority of the accepted playable races are real races that can be found in the explored territories. There are some arguments about what is an “appropriate” race for a person play as, and if one should only play within their own race. Social restrictions on playable races are most common with Eala races and humans, while in the Rendi it is rarely something that is considered to be an issue.
There are also discussions of if it is appropriate to play characters of different genders or sexualities to oneself, or to make characters with traumatic backstories that have not been personally experienced by the player, though these are usually less controversial conversations than the ones about character race and each group will, generally, come to an agreement about appropriate character rules before starting a campaign.
Regardless of final decisions on appropriate character diversity, all Caves and Creatures character sheets should contain the following:
• Character Name, Age, Race, and Gender: The absolute basics of the character’s personal details that identify them.
• Character History: A more detailed record of the character’s personal details, usually a page of notes made to help keep track of a character’s interpersonal relationships, professional affiliations, and likes and dislikes. At the beginning of a campaign it will generally only be a basic run-down of the character’s backstory and interests, and throughout the campaign will have more added onto it.
• Driving Motivation: The character’s current, most important motivation that drives their actions. This can change quest-by-quest or be a more complicated long-term goal or personal belief.
• Alignment: The moral alignment of the character. This detail uses a quadrant chart, with the sides being Selfish to Charitable, and Easily Influenced to Strict Principles. Character alignment can change throughout the game as the character is affected by different goals and relationships.
• Level and EXP: A record of the character’s level and current unlevelled experience points (EXP). The basic starting level for a new player character is level 5, though non-player characters may be any level. The needed EXP to level up changes with every level, and is calculated by multiplying the character’s current level by 100. EXP is earnt through gameplay; making character choices that relate to their driving motivation or backstory, successfully using skills, or having a character take in-world time to study or train will grant EXP.
• PHP and MHP: The Health of a character is separated into two categories, Physical Health Points (PHP) an Mental Health Points (MHP). Both are used to determine how much stress a character can endure before suffering a handicap. Both start at 5 points, and every level up the player gains +1 point to add to their character’s health and must make the choice on which to improve PHP or MHP. PHP relates to physical health and is the more popular mechanic for combat-based campaigns. Losing PHP, at the Cave Creator’s discretion, can cause physical ailments both permanent and temporary ranging from basic bruises to character death. MHP relates to the mental fortitude of a character and is generally used more for storytelling value as losing MHP affects a character’s personality. MHP can be used for things ranging from keeping secrets under pressure or torture, to the character’s ability to coherently comprehend the world around them.
• FBR: Failures Before Rest (FBR) is a way to determine a character’s stamina; it is the amount of times your character can fail using their skills before they have to rest and recuperate. A new slot is gained every 10 levels, beginning at 1 for characters under level 10. However, characters can lose or gain FBR slots independent of level via gameplay, generally losing them as a consequence for large amounts of damage done to PHP and MHP and gaining them as rewards for completing difficult quests.
• Skills: All characters have skills used to set them apart from others and give them useful actions during gameplay. Skills are things such as usable spells, weaponry training, physical fitness, and knowledge of in-world lore, and a character’s proficiency in an skill is improved by points earnt via character levelling. Every level grants +10 Proficiency Points (PP) that can be distributed to any existing skills to level them up, used to purchase new skills, or saved to the character’s PP pool to be used later. PP can also be earnt in specific skills by in-world use and training, usually in smaller amounts than levelling. It takes 10 PP to unlock or level up a skill and a standard character starts with 50 PP points, allowing them to distribute 5 levels through their starting skills in any way they wish.
• Traits: A character gains traits as they unlock new skills. For every new skill taken, a character must take a trait related to the new skill, and all traits taken must be negative or, at the very least, add character complexity and act as a hurdle for a character to balance their new skill. An example of a popular negative trait is spell-caster characters being arrogant about their abilities and causing negative social connections through bragging or snobbery. Traits can change as a character levels up and develops, but they cannot be completely ignored or disposed of. They are often used as a way to create story complexity or earn extra EXP, as playing well to a character’s negative traits while using an ability grants a bonus to the EXP earned.
• Inventory and Currencies: A list of items and currencies that your character carries on their immediate person. Some groups choose to separate their inventories into smaller categories such as Pockets and Packs; noting down if something is readily available to a character at a moment’s notice or if they will need to search for it within their things.
Using Character Skills
Caves and Creatures uses a level-based skill system and 6 sided dice to determine if the use of a skill is successful. The default maximum level for a skill that can be achieved through levelling is 5, though a skill can become level 6 (“Mastered”) through in-game events such as godly blessings or grand deeds.
At its most basic core, the aim of rolling a skill is to land on a number either matching the character’s skill level, or a number lower than the skill level. For example, a character with level 3 in lock picking can only successfully unlock a door if they roll between 1-3 on the die. However, complexity is added via the buff and assist mechanics; which add or subtract from the numbers needed to succeed.
Because of the way skills work, it is extremely difficult for a character to succeed in using a skill they do not have a level in. It is possible to do with buffs and assists, but it is very unlikely. Otherwise, rolling a 1 for any skill is generally always a success. Similarly, rolling a 6 is, in most cases, considered an instant fumble unless a character has their skill improved to the Mastered level or is receiving a beneficial buff or assist.
Assists in skill rolls are a relatively simple mechanic and can be made by any other character present at the cost of a FBR point. If a player spends a FBR point, they can add half (rounded up) of their own character’s level in a either the same skill or a “complimentary” skill to another player’s roll. Complimentary skills are determined on a roll-by-roll basis, encouraging players to discuss how their individual skills can be combined to achieve their goals.
An assist must be declared before rolling. This mechanic was added to lessen an issue where players would repeat the same failed skill roll over and over again until their FBR completely ran out; by simply spending 1 FBR point, the chances of succeeding on the first attempt increases. On a failure, a FBR is still taken by the character performing the assisted skill, as normal.
There are also buffs that can be applied by items, environment, ailments, or magic. Negative buffs make it harder for a character to succeed, while positive buffs increase a character’s chance of success. Some common examples of things that can provide buffs (both positive and negative) are light levels, weather, injury, enchantments, and armour.
Conflict
Conflicts are any sort of character-on-character clash. Player-on-NPC is the most common form of conflict, though sometimes players may conflict with other players or the conflict rules may be used for particularly complex obstacles.
Conflicts can be physical, mental, or a mix of the two, dependant on the purpose of the conflict and how the players decide they want to pursue a resolution. Most often, conflict is used as a form of battle and players will use a mix of mental and physical combat in order to win.
The goal of conflict is to lower the opponent’s PHP and/or MHP. There are two options for lowering these stats:
Reduce either PHP or MHP to 0 (whichever stat is lowest is generally best to focus on).
OR,
Reduce a character’s overall Health (PHP and MHP combined) to a total of 10% of their full health. EG; a character with 50 health in both PHP and MHP can be reduced to 5 in both stats in order to beat them.
In order to do damage in a conflict, a player must first roll to hit their opponent using the relevant skill (EG, archery, war spells, hand-to-hand) like any other skill check, but with intent to harm. If their roll is successful they are able to calculate the damage done: The player will roll a number of dice equal to their skill’s level, with the total number added together being the amount of damage done. With a level 5 skill, 5 is the minimum damage done, and 30 the maximum.
In some groups, if a player has a level 6 in a skill and all dice rolled for damage land on a 6, they add an extra damage bonus for the good luck called a “cubed cube” (believed to be a tongue-in cheek about 6-sided die being cubes) and do damage equal to 6x6x6 (216) rather than the actual 6x6 (36) that was rolled. This is, generally, enough to immediately end most conflicts.
The skills used do not always have to be combat-specific skills, as many different skills can be used to demoralise opponents in order to deal MHP. Rather than killing or restraining a character by lowering their PHP, many players choose to conflict with MHP in order to have their opponent yield to them.
It is encouraged for the players to role-play the effects of the different kinds of damage. Extra EXP can by earnt by leaning into damage types; choosing to lower a character’s movement in combat due to having low PHP, or skipping a turn when low on MHP because the character can’t bring themselves to act, is encouraged in order to create complexity and earn extra EXP at the Cave Creator’s discretion.
Storytelling/Plot
The storytelling styles and plot-lines of Caves and Creatures games will vary greatly dependant on the group and, especially, the Cave Creator. The Cave Creator is the one writing the plot of the game and creating things such as NPCs, locations, items, and monsters, and so each game tends to have its own style unique to the group playing it.
Some groups prefer shorter adventures; choosing to keep the same group of characters together while playing through short plots that only last for a few sessions. Meanwhile, others prefer to play long-running campaigns; one long coherent story containing all of their characters’ arcs and development and lasting as long as several years.
Like the length of adventures, different groups also enjoy different kinds of stories; some will focus on grand journey plots, while others will have slice-of-life stories. Some will have large and complex emotional conflicts, while some are treated like strategy war-games. Some groups prefer cosy and relaxing themes, and some want dark tales of horror and pain. Some prefer historically accurate stories, some prefer complete fantasy. And still, some like to keep their games child-friendly, while others will go into more explicit details.
It is completely up to a group to discuss and discover their preferences.