Dice Overview

The Archive Dice System is built for gritty, story driven survival roleplay.

Abilities and Skills

Abilities represent your fundamental strengths as a survivor. They define how you endure danger, solve problems, and influence the world.

Each Ability governs a set of Skills. Skills are specialised and are always rolled with their parent Ability.

When you attempt an action using a Skill, roll:

d20 + its associated Ability + the Skill level

Compare the total to a Difficulty Class (DC) set by the narrator or the rules.

Skills cannot be combined with different Abilities.

Physique

Physique reflects raw physical capability.

Skills

Athletics

Climbing, jumping, swimming, lifting, and other feats of physical exertion.

Melee

Fighting with close combat weapons or unarmed strikes.

Resilience

Enduring pain, resisting poison or illness, and withstanding physical trauma.

Agility

Agility reflects speed, coordination, and control.

Skills

Aiming

Using ranged weapons accurately under stress.

Stealth

Moving quietly, hiding, and avoiding detection.

Reflex

Reacting quickly to danger, avoiding hazards, and resisting sudden effects.

Finesse

Precise manual control, delicate manipulation, or careful physical actions.

Reason

Reason reflects perception, logic, and applied knowledge.

Skills

Awareness

Noticing threats, spotting details, and sensing changes in the environment.

Medicine

Treating wounds, stabilising injuries, and managing illness.

Technology

Using, repairing, or understanding machines and electronic systems.

Academia

General knowledge, research, and recalling learned information.

Presence

Presence reflects emotional strength and force of personality. It governs morale, persuasion, intimidation, and self control.

Skills

Morale

Resisting fear, maintaining composure, and enduring psychological strain.

Intimidation

Coercing or frightening others into compliance.

Persuasion

Convincing others through reason, trust, or emotional appeal.

Deception

Lying convincingly, misleading others, or concealing the truth.

Difficulty Class and Outcomes The DC represents how difficult a task is and ranges between 5 and 30, with the difficulty of the task determining the DC. Tasks that are impossible, should not be rolled for. After rolling, compare your total to the DC. If your total is below the DC the action fails: Missed by 5 or more → Strong Failure If your total meets or exceeds the DC, it succeeds: Exceeded by 5 or more → Strong Success