Beginner's Guidebook

Introduction

The Enchanted Hills is an entire territory of land that is rich with all kinds of various terrain. The land itself resides in the present, modern world, but it is covered by a mysterious aura that degenerates and degrades technology and artifacts that are not made by hand.

The Enchanted Hills is centered around story development and personal interaction both in and out of administrator led events. Anyone will get out of it what they put into it. Being active and interactive will yield higher results than being dormant and reclusive, however the game has no mandatory attendance requirements. There is no need to feel you have a quota of events to attend to maintain membership, for example.

The out of character rules for the game are very succinct and simple.

The Aura

The aura of the Enchanted Hills persists throughout every aspect of the game, and is always in effect. The aura's origins are unknown, and cannot be negated. It affects all characters, whether magical or not, regardless of lore, race, items, etc. This is primarily a plot element that allows modern and fantasy characters to co-exist.

The aura has the following effects on characters.

Character Design

The aura has a great deal of impact on many facets of the game, including, but not limited to restricting character abilities when they are newly exposed to it.

All characters begin the game at Level 1, regardless of how many years experience a player has. The Enchanted Hills is a standalone game, and therefore your character is considered new to here. You are allowed to keep any personal character lore and history you desire.

New characters will begin with a simple starting template. This is generally 2d30 combat dice, 15 health, 0 mana, 1d20 action dice, 1,000 gold, 5 loot tokens, and 1 empty Talent slot. These are discussed later in this guide.

Locations

The Enchanted Hills has several notable locations, and nearly limitless ones that are yet to be discovered, or are accessible only in groups.

Cities

There are presently 4 major cities within the Enchanted Hills. You can find extended details about all of the regions in the Lore section of the web site.

Journey borders the western side of the region, surrounded by forest and some mountainous regions. Through normal road routes, Journey directly borders the modern world and is the most common way characters enter the game on foot. Journey is industrious and the most modernized of all the cities.

Cromwell resides in the north, nestled in the volcanic-like mountains that span the entire northern border of the land. Cromwell is a military garrison and is well protected.

Lightrose resides in the mid-southern region of the land and is surrounded by intense, lush forests. Lightrose was one of the earlier settlements and is often referred to as Fort Lightrose by more veteran characters.

Darkthorn is the capitol city of the Enchanted Hills, and rests on the far eastern shore. It is the only city with a wharf, and as such, the only city accessible by sea. The Highlord of the Enchanted Hills resides in Darkthorn, which is constructed mostly of stone.

Points of Interest

The Academy of Arcane Arts floats as a standalone continent above the city of Darkthorn, and is the hub of magical activity in the land. This is where characters can go to be trained in the use of magic formally.

Each city has a prominent Inne. The Silver Stein in Darkthorn, The Maiden's Hede in Lightrose, The Raven's Nest in Cromwell, and The Journey's End in Journey. New characters are presumed to be staying at one of these Innes and paying their wages by doing chores, unless they elect to live on the streets, until they can afford their own housing.

Travel

Traveling between major locations is always permitted, however in the interest of respecting the concept of play quality, preventing cross role play, and to add to the feeling that the cities are spread apart, it is asked that players respect some general rules when moving between them.

Moving from one city to another should take about 30 minutes to 60 minutes of real time. This may be played out in a public room if you desire, but the main intention is to add to the realism of distance. This value does not represent actual game time, as it is assumed it takes several hours to move between the cities.

Notes

Leveling

Every character in the Enchanted Hills has a Level. A character's level equates to the overall value of their attributes and statistics. Characters increase in level as they participate in the game through events, combat, and other activities.

Starting at Level 1, a character has 2d30 combat dice, 1d20 action dice, 15 health, 0 mana, 2 bonus to saving throws, 1 available Talent slot, 1,000 gold, and 5 loot tokens. These are explained in vivid detail in the rules section of the web site, and touched on throughout this tutorial.

At each level, your combat dice sides, health, and mana, if applicable, increase by 1. Increasing your action dice is done through recruiting and participating in role play on the message boards.

Talents

Talents are selectable augmentations to a character that grant them new abilities, bonuses, mechanics, etc. Talents are frequently being added, and it is impossible to obtain all of them.

You begin the game with the ability to select 1 Talent, and may select another every 10th level. Template Races may begin the game with a set of talents that they inherit for free, in addition to the one they may select. Please refer to the section on Races in the rules for more information on this.

Experience Points

Experience points are gained through most activities in the game. At certain intervals, a character will accrue enough experience points to ascend to the next level.

Dice

Dice are the primary component used for checks and statistical failure in the Enchanted Hills. They add a randomization element that injects probability where it might not otherwise exist.

Dice are rolled using the command //roll-dice#-sides#, substituting the # for the appropriate value. So a roll of 2d30 would be typed out as //roll-dice2-sides30 into the America Online chat window.

Combat Dice

Every character has a set of combat dice, beginning at 2d30 for adults, and 1d20 for children under the age of 15. Combat dice represent melee offensive capability in most situations. Combat dice increase naturally as a character levels, equips items, and emerges victorious in friendly competition and earns medals.

Action Dice

Action dice are used when a character wishes to accomplish something that has a chance to yield failure, gather information, perform a feat that might place them under duress, etc. Action dice might be used to survey an area for enemies, to inspect a body for salvagable items, to try and steady oneself in climbing a steep wall, or to catch a pursuing opponent. Action dice begin at 1d20 for most races, and are increased by posting on the game message boards, recruiting, and equipment.

Saving Throw

A saving throw is a roll of 1d20 that receives a bonus to its final value based on various aspects of your character. By default, characters begin with a bonus of +2 to their saving throw, and it will grow as they level up and equip certain items. Saving throws will be requested when there is a chance for a character to resist or defend against some kind of effect or condition.

Critical Strike

A critical strike is, whether through sheer luck or unerring skill, a decisive blow which has the potential to deal tremendous damage to an opponent is delivered. When a critical strike is dealt, the damage value of each individual hit in a strike is doubled.

A critical strike can be performed on any normal melee strike by rolling 1d20. On a roll of 20, the strike is considered critical. This threshold can be lowered by Talents, equipment, and racial bonuses.

Life and Death

All characters have a Health pool that represents the state of your physical condition. This is depleted when a character is attacked, suffers from falling, etc. Health may be replenished by periods of rest, potions, certain items, and magical spells. Please see the section on Regeneration in the rules for details.

Whenever a character has damage dealt to them, their health pool drops accordingly. However the way in which damage is dealt may determine the reaction.

Damage comes in different flavors, specifically lethal and non-lethal.

Non Lethal Damage

In general, damage done between players in friendly sparring environments, and many ambient scenes is considered non-lethal. That is to say the intention behind it is not to kill the target. A worst case scenario is a bone fracture, brief unconsciousness, etc. Damage done that is very obviously incapable of killing a target is considered non-lethal.

Lethal Damage

Damage done with the intent to maim or slay an opponent is considered lethal. This would include slitting their throat, breaking their neck, or forcing someone’s eye down on the tip of a pike, just to name a few examples.

If a character is dropped below 0 health from a lethal source, they are considered dying. But are not yet dead. At this point, you may begin to try and stabilize. On your turn of combat, you will roll a 1d20, and a roll of 19-20 will bring you back to 0 health, and stabilize you. If you fail to stabilize within three turns, the character is considered dead.

Melee Strikes

The most common way of delivering damage is with melee strikes. This is done using the combat dice that all characters have. Characters begin the game with 2d30 combat dice.

Characters begin the game without any equipment, but enough gold to purchase a simple weapon of their choice. Fighting without a weapon cuts both the combat die and the sides in half, ergo, a Level 1 unarmed fighter would have 1d15 combat dice. This can be remedied with the Talent Improved Unarmed Combat, or by equipping any weapon.

The Melee Strike

When you wish to attack someone, you roll your combat dice. This is known as a strike. Each number rolled corrosponds to a value on a hit table, and added together this is the total amount of damage done.

The Melee Hit

Whenever a melee strike is performed, each individual number is considered a unique hit. Each hit equals damage based on its value on the hit chart. So, a character with 2d50 performs a roll, with the outcome being 29, 47 has delivered two hits worth 3 and 7, for a total of 10 damage.

Magic

Magic in the Enchanted Hills is everywhere, and it is volatile. The aura constantly causes magic to surge and go awry, even to the experienced mage.

To use magic, a character must first become sensitive to it. This is done by obtaining the Talent Arcane Potential. Upon obtaining this, the character is capable of using a Mana pool to cast spells, once they are learned.

Spell Cast

Once you have learned a spell, you may attempt to cast it. To do this, you must declare Out of Character the spell being cast and how much Mana it costs. You then proceed to roll a Spell Casting check of 1d100.

All spells require a spell casting check, unless otherwise stated. This is always 1d100.

By default, you must score an 80 or higher for a spell to succeed. If your character has a wand equipped, or has the Talent Wandless Magic, this challenge is reduced to 6.

If you fail the spell casting check, then your spell is considered to mis-cast. You must roll a 2d6 and consult the mis-casting chart in the rules.

Spell Hit

Some spells will state that they require a hit. This means that even if you manage to pass the spell casting check, you must still land a hit on your target.

A Spell Hit roll is always 1d of whatever your combat dice sides are. The challenge to successfully hit is 15 or higher. So if your combat dice are 2d50, you would roll 1d50 for trying to hit with spells.