Core Rules Reference

This chapter summarizes the Exodus NDS mechanics the GM uses most frequently at the table. It is a reference, not a tutorial. For the complete rules, see the Exodus NDS Core Rules. For player-facing summaries, see Ix Player Guide Chapters Twelve and Thirteen. All values here must match the Rule Canon Index.

Building a Dice Pool

Every check uses a dice pool. Build it using the higher-of/upgrade-by-lower rule:

1. Identify the characteristic and skill governing the check.
2. Take whichever rating is higher (characteristic or skill) as your total number of positive dice; all begin as Ability dice.
3. Upgrade a number of those Ability dice equal to whichever rating is lower, replacing each with a Mastery die.
4. Add the pool's difficulty in Trial dice.
5. Add any Boon dice or Bane dice from circumstances, preparation, or GM spend.

Example: Intellect 3, Lore 2. Intellect is higher, so start with 3 Ability dice. Lore is lower, so upgrade 2 of them to Mastery dice. Pool before difficulty: . An untrained character (skill 0) rolls Ability dice equal to their characteristic only, with no upgrades.

Difficulty

Set difficulty based on the task, not the character. A trained person under normal conditions faces Average. An expert at the edge of their capability faces Severe. Extreme is reserved for feats other people tell stories about. One or more Trial Dice may be upgraded to Crisis Dice when volatility is warranted: this adds Banes and Calamity risk without changing the difficulty tier.

Reading Results

After rolling, cancel symbols: Successes cancel Failures; Boons cancel Banes. Breakthroughs and Calamities each contribute one Success or Failure respectively, and those contributed symbols can be cancelled normally. Their special effects are set aside and always trigger.

A character can succeed with Bane (task accomplished, but something goes wrong) or fail with Boon (task fails, but something useful comes from the attempt). These are the most interesting results to describe at the table.

The GM's Spend Menus

When the dice produce unspent Boons or Banes, you spend them for the NPC or environment. Build your spend menu before structured play begins. Common GM spends:

Bane spends:

• Add 1 to the character's next check
• An ally suffers 1 point of strain
• An enemy recovers from a minor condition
• A resource is depleted (torch, tool, ration)
• An environmental hazard activates or worsens
• The adversary gains a free maneuver

Calamity spends:

• Critical injury to the character (if in combat)
• A weapon malfunctions, breaks, or is dropped
• A significant ally NPC is endangered
• A faction front advances one tick
• A hidden enemy is alerted

Spend Banes and Calamities honestly and promptly. Saving them up or forgetting them undermines the mechanical weight of the system. Spend them in the moment they arise, describing the consequence as world-produced rather than GM-authored: "as you force the lock, the noise draws the attention of the patrol on the floor above."

Initiative and Turn Order

On Watch: Savvy + Perception rank. Used when the character is aware that danger is possible.

Surprised: Willpower + Readiness rank. Used when danger arrives without warning.

Characters with On Watch initiative roll against one pool; Surprised characters roll against another. Each character takes one slot in the initiative order based on their result. Ties among players and ties among NPCs are broken by the respective sides; player-NPC ties are broken by player choice.

On their turn, each character may take:

• One Action (most significant activity: attack, cast, use an ability, perform a complex task)
• One Maneuver (less significant: move, draw a weapon, open a door, steady aim, aid another)
• Characters may take a second Maneuver by suffering 2 Strain

Defense cap. No character's Melee Defense or Ranged Defense may exceed 3 from any combination of sources. Both types are capped independently.

Defensive Guard is a special Action: the character commits entirely to defense. All attacks against them add 1 Bane Die until their next turn. They cannot also attack or cast on that turn. Choose Defensive Guard when surviving the round matters more than acting in it.

Guarded (the Guarded talent, taken as a Maneuver) upgrades one Trial Die to a Crisis Die on all attacks against the character until their next turn. This leaves their Action free. Guarded and Defensive Guard do not stack.

Catch Breath (a Maneuver, once per encounter) recovers 1 Strain; the Catch Breath talent increases this to 2 Strain.

Grapple difficulty construction. When a character attempts to initiate a grapple, build the difficulty pool from the target's physical capability: use the higher of the target's Might or Agility as the base die count, upgraded by whichever is lower. This uses the same pool-construction rule (higher total, lower upgrades) that governs all checks; but the defending character's stats fill the difficulty pool rather than standard Trial Dice. The GM may add Boon or Bane Dice for circumstances (off-guard, pinned, wet armor, greater footing, etc.).

Fortune Points and Peril Points

The session economy runs on two pools that flip back and forth. At the start of each session every player receives 1 Fortune Point and you receive 1 Peril Point. Neither carries over.

• A player spends a Fortune Point to upgrade one Ability Die to a Mastery Die before rolling, to activate a Breakthrough effect after rolling, or to introduce a minor favorable detail with your approval. One per check. The spent point flips to your side as a Peril Point.
• You spend a Peril Point to upgrade one Trial Die to a Crisis Die in a difficulty pool, to activate a Calamity effect after a player rolls, or to introduce a complication. The spent point flips to the players' side as a Fortune Point.

Two rules of thumb. Spend early: a Peril Point held all session is pressure the table never felt, and the players never got the Fortune Point back. Spend visibly: say what the point buys before the dice land, so the flip reads as a fair trade rather than a reversal.

Peril Points are not a Nemesis's Peril pool. A Nemesis stat block's Peril line (for example Peril 2 on the Anchor Dragon) is that creature's own budget for its special abilities, set by Chapter Thirteen and by the Adversary Catalog. It does not draw from, or feed, the session pool.

Adversary Tiers in Practice

Minions operate in groups. A Minion group pools its Wounds and acts as one entity. When reduced to 0 Wounds, the group is defeated. One Minion per group adds its skill rank to checks; the rest contribute passive group bonuses. Minions cannot spend Breakthroughs or suffer Calamities unless the GM spends the result against them.

Elites are individual adversaries with their own Wounds track. They follow the same rules as player characters for checks, wounds, and maneuvers. They may have Talents and special abilities but not Strain points, Strain results convert to Wounds for Elites at 1:1.

Nemeses are fully statted adversaries with both Wounds and Strain, Peril points, and access to the full rules. A Nemesis can spend Breakthroughs, suffer Calamities, and spend Peril for narrative effects as defined in their stat block. Nemeses should have explicit tactics and encounter-use notes because they shape the whole scene.

Fear, Frightened, and Demoralized

The player-facing rule is in Ix Player Guide, Chapter Thirteen. This section is the GM-side procedure: what you assign, when you call for it, and how it ends.

Assigning a Fear rating. A source of fear carries a rating from 1 to 4, and the rating is the difficulty of the check: 1 is Easy, 2 is Average, 3 is Hard, 4 is Severe. Assign a rating only when the source should change what the characters are willing to do. Most fights need no rating. When a creature entry lists a Fear rating, that rating is canon for the creature and replaces any rating you would set by eye.

When the check happens. Once per source per scene, at the moment the source is brought to bear: the dragon lands, the horde comes over the wall, the devil drops the clerk's manner. Not when the party first hears the thing exists, and not again each round.

Readiness or Discipline. Readiness covers sudden shock. Discipline covers dread that builds. Name the skill when you call for the check. A character who had time to see the source coming may use Discipline instead; they must say so before the dice are rolled.

Running Frightened. A Frightened character adds 1 to checks against the source or made in its presence and cannot voluntarily close distance with it. They can still attack it, guard, aid an ally, cast, and withdraw. Frightened is a pressure on approach, not a lost turn. Do not narrate a Frightened player character as fleeing; that decision stays with the player.

Minion groups and Elites. A Minion group makes one Fear check for the whole group, using the group's best relevant skill rank. An Elite makes one check for itself. Failure makes them Demoralized rather than Frightened: the group or Elite will not advance, adds 1 to its attacks, and spends its Action to withdraw, surrender, or defend. Demoralized is the Ix term for what creature entries call a morale break; an ability that negates or ignores a morale break (Rally, Hold the Line) prevents or ends Demoralized in the same way.

Lifting Demoralized. An allied leader at Short range or closer may spend an Action on a Leadership check at difficulty equal to the Fear rating that caused it. Success ends Demoralized for one Minion group or one Elite. Failure leaves it in place and the leader may try again on a later turn. A leader who is Frightened or Demoralized cannot make this check.

Nemeses check individually and become Frightened, never Demoralized.

Immunities. Undead, constructs, and any creature whose entry says it cannot be Frightened or Demoralized ignore Fear ratings and fear-based Intimidation entirely. Tell the players what they are looking at before they spend a turn trying to break its nerve.

Characters imposing fear. When a player character's talent, spell, or Intimidation check imposes fear on an NPC, the effect states the rating or the difficulty. Resolve it with this procedure; do not improvise a second fear subsystem for the player side.

Critical Injuries

This is the canonical Critical Injury table for Ix: it lives here, in the GM Guide, and nowhere else. The Player Guide describes when a Critical Injury happens and how it is resolved; the GM rolls on the table below and applies the result.

Ix expands the core trigger list by adding an automatic Critical Injury when an already incapacitated target suffers at least 1 Wound or 1 Strain from an attack. This is part of Ix's harsher death-clock procedure, not the core default.

A Critical Injury is triggered when:

• A character's Wounds reach 0 or below (immediately, at the moment of incapacitation);
• An attacker spends a Breakthrough on an attack against the target;
• An attack generates net Boons equal to or greater than the weapon's Crit rating, and those Boons are spent to inflict one (a Breakthrough may always be spent instead);
• Any attack causes an already Incapacitated target to suffer at least 1 Wound or 1 Strain (automatic; no Boons or Breakthroughs required).

Resolving it. Roll d100 and add +10 for each Critical Injury the target already carries (results can climb past 100). Read the matching row from the table. The injury is immediate and persists until treated. Severity bands run Minor 01–30, Moderate 31–60, Severe 61–85, Deadly 86–100, Mortal 101+. Each untreated injury raises every later roll on that target by +10, so a battered target climbs the table fast. The 141–150 Killed row is instant death; no medical check applies.

Wounds, incapacitation, and death (GM summary). When a character's Wounds reach 0, they are incapacitated and begin bleeding out (−1 Wound/round). Negative Wounds must be healed to 0 before natural recovery begins. When the character's wound total reaches a negative value equal to their full Wound Points (double their maximum), they die. See the Player Guide (Chapter Thirteen) for the full rule.

Ix Critical Injury Table

This table uses the standard Exodus NDS line format: twenty-five entries, 5-point bands up to 100 and 10-point bands above it, five severity tiers, and a Killed row at 141–150. It matches the structure used by the other Exodus NDS Universes, reflavoured for Dort.

Treatment by severity. Minor: Easy Medicine check, rest, or simple field care. Moderate: Average Medicine check with proper supplies and time. Severe: Hard Medicine check with extended care, proper tools, and a safe place to work. Deadly: Severe Medicine check with a skilled healer, rare materials, or story resolution. Mortal: Severe Medicine check plus a temple infirmary, rare materials, or divine intervention; some Mortal entries leave a permanent mark even when treated. On success the injury is removed and stops adding +10 to future rolls. On failure it remains; Banes or a Calamity on the Medicine check may consume supplies, worsen the condition, or extend recovery.

Divine healing. Where a spell entry says so, a divine working substitutes for the Medicine check (see the Player Guide, Chapter Nine: Cleanse, Greater Heal, Vital Heal, and Tide Heal). No working short of Revive or Resurrection answers a Killed result.

Stepping an injury down. When a rule reduces a Critical Injury "by one step," move it down one row on this table and apply the new entry. Minor entries clear on their own or with simple care. Moderate and Severe entries require the listed treatment. Deadly entries require a skilled healer. Mortal entries are immediately life-threatening and do not step down through ordinary medicine; they must be answered on the clock the entry names.

A fresh target with no untreated injuries can roll no higher than 100, so a first Critical Injury is never lethal. The Mortal rows are reached only after the +10-per-injury climb stacks several untreated injuries together, four or more in practice.

Adjudicating Magic at the Table

Magic in Dort operates through three player-facing traditions (Arcana, Divine, Primal) and one non-player category (Ancient magic). The Player Guide explains what each tradition is; this section is about running magic encounters as GM.

The key question for any magical action: What tradition is this, and what does that tradition cost or restrict?

Arcana-tradition checks use Intellect + Arcana skill. They can be attempted by anyone with the skill. A standard focus is an optional tool: it adds 1 Boon Die to the casting check, but it is not required for ordinary Arcana casting. Some specific spells list a Required Focus; those spell entries are exceptions and cannot be cast without the named focus. Arcana workings are not portfolio-limited, an Arcana practitioner can produce effects across a broad range of outcomes, which is why the tradition is studied at academies and regulated by the Conclave. A Bane spent by the GM against an Arcana check produces an unintended effect within the working's general purpose; a Calamity produces a dangerous misfire.

Divine-tradition checks use Willpower + Divine skill. A cleric draws on the full Divine tradition, the portfolio shapes meaning and consequence, not the spell list, with one exception per god: the Forbidden Grant listed under each deity in the Player Guide (Chapter Ten, What [God] Will Not Grant). That single category of working is the one thing the god refuses to empower when the working violates the god's deeper purpose: Nyxollox grants no Resurrection past a soul's judgment, Themela grants no deception, Oshala grants nothing to women, and so on. Within a true Forbidden Grant the channel simply does not open, however the cleric rolls. A Calamity spent against an ordinary Divine check is still the heaviest outcome in the game: it represents the deity withholding favor from that specific action. The cleric does not lose their faith or their powers, but this working fails and the deity has registered the attempt. Track Divine Calamities against recurring actions, three in the same area means the deity has an opinion about that area.

Primal-tradition checks use Savvy + Primal skill. They are source-limited: Primal workings draw from living natural sources and elemental planes. Primal checks are more reliable in outdoor and wilderness settings. In environments substantially cut off from natural sources (sealed dungeons with no living material, Oshalan-administered cities where worked stone and registration have displaced wild growth, areas of strong Dim proximity) the GM may add to Primal casting checks. This is a GM judgment call based on how thoroughly the environment has severed its relationship with natural sources, not an automatic penalty in any city. A Primal practitioner working against truly dead stone and administrative order is working against the grain; one working in a walled city that still has parks, rivers, and rats in its walls is not.

Divine magic revocation. A divine character whose actions oppose their patron deity's portfolio accumulates divine offenses. This is not a gotcha and not a tax on ordinary casting. When a cleric is about to cross a serious doctrinal line, give the player a clear warning in the fiction before the action resolves: a cold silence in the holy symbol, a prayer that catches in the throat, the sudden certainty that the god is watching. The player should have a chance to reconsider.

Track offenses in stages. A minor offense counts as one offense. A major offense counts as two offenses if, in the GM's judgment, the action is a direct betrayal of the deity's profile or Forbidden Grant. The consequences apply to Divine workings tied to the violated doctrine unless the offense is so broad that the whole covenant is implicated.

Repentance can reduce or clear the track, but it must be real in the fiction. At minimum, repentance requires absolution from another cleric who maintains a temple or shrine. Serious offenses may also require a quest, restitution to the harmed party, public confession, or a specific service that repairs the doctrine the cleric violated. A Nyxollox cleric who uses their powers to prevent a legitimate death from being witnessed, rather than protect it, might first find healing harder, then dangerous, then narrowed to minor rites, and finally silent. The divine compact is about the faith, and the faith has an opinion.

Ruling a Forbidden Grant. A Forbidden Grant is a wall, not a tripwire, and walls have gates. The test is whose purpose the working serves. If the spell genuinely serves the god's deeper nature, not merely the player's convenience, though the two can align: the GM may let it through even when it brushes against the listed prohibition. The standard is the deity's intent, read charitably but honestly.

The clearest example is Jusannia, who grants nothing used to harm a woman. Read flatly, that would leave a priestess unable to raise a hand when a band of women mercenaries storms her temple: which is absurd, and which Jusannia would never intend. In defense of women (or of the temple, the vulnerable, the sisterhood) the restriction lifts: the priestess fights with her god's full blessing, because protecting women is the very thing the prohibition exists to serve. The same logic generalizes. Themela forbids deception, but a Truth-keeper laying a false trail to expose a corrupt court is serving truth, not betraying it. Nyxollox forbids dragging souls back, but easing a soul toward its rest is the heart of the faith. Look past the surface of the spell to the purpose it serves.

How to rule it at the table:

• The case is sound (the working plainly serves the god's deeper aim): allow it cleanly, at normal difficulty. The deity is not grudging when its own purpose is being served.
• The case is shaky (the justification is real but strained, or self-serving with a thin moral gloss): allow it, but make the strain visible, upgrade one Trial Die to a Crisis Die, or add 1–2 Bane Dice to the casting check. The god permits it, reluctantly, and the working is harder to hold.
• The case is bad faith (the player is rationalizing something the god would plainly refuse): the channel stays shut. Nothing happens, no Strain is spent, and persistent attempts are exactly the doctrinal violation that leads to revocation.

The GM has final say on which of these applies. When in doubt, ask the player to make the case as the deity would hear it, not as the character wants it, then rule on what you hear.

Tradition interactions. When one magical effect tries to end or break another, use the Player Guide's Dispel or Resist rules first. Only fall back to an opposed check when two live workings directly push against each other and no spell entry gives a Dispel, Resist, or counterspell procedure. In that case, each practitioner builds the relevant casting pool normally, including any difficulty from their own working, but neither adds Trial or Crisis Dice solely because the other caster is opposing them. Compare net Successes as a normal opposed check: the stronger result wins; a tie favors the defending or already-established working.

The Beacon Problem (see Player Guide, Ch 9) has GM-facing implications: any working at power levels consistent with Ancient access (effects that are not merely large but categorically impossible under Mortal or Divine mechanics, reshaping geography, creating life, rewriting cosmological structure) produces a signature visible across planes. This is not a rule that will come up in normal play. When it comes up, it means something extraordinary is happening, and every faction with resources to monitor planar signatures is now paying attention.

Wounds, Healing, and the Soul Economy

When a character is reduced to 0 Wounds and incapacitated, the soul-economy implications begin. The character is not dead yet, but the Silver Road is closer than usual. The bleed-out clock is running (−1 Wound per round). A character who is stabilized and later healed above 0 recovers; a character who crosses the death threshold (negative total equal to their full Wound Points) is now subject to all the soul-economy mechanics covered in Chapter Four.

The death-relevant question is not just survival: it is witnessed survival. A character who dies without anyone nearby to witness the death has just generated a Nyxollox faith problem. The death-keeper associated with this region will note it. Whether the party wants to address that becomes a faction-clock event.

Medicine checks during or immediately after combat:

• Average Medicine (Action) — stabilize a bleeding-out incapacitated character; stops the −1 Wound/round clock; does not restore positive Wounds
• Average Medicine — treat a wounded but conscious character; each net Success restores 1 Wound; once per encounter per target
• Critical Injury treatment — use the difficulty listed in the table above; At Death's Door (121–130) requires a Severe Medicine check or a divine healing working that same turn; Lights Going Out (131–140) requires one before the end of the round; Killed (141–150) cannot be treated, it is instant death

Negative Wounds must be healed back to 0 before natural recovery (rest) can apply. Healing spells and Medicine checks count from whatever negative total the character is at. Extended rest heals Strain fully and recovers Wounds equal to Might, but only if the character is not at negative Wounds.

Building New Spells

The Player Guide (Chapter Nine) contains the full Ix spell list, 119 spells across all three traditions. Use it first. Build new spells only when the campaign needs something that list does not contain, a specific Ix divine power, a faction-unique working, or a location-specific ritual.

New spells should be built using the same framework as existing spells. This keeps them balanced against the system and makes adjudication consistent.

Step 1: Define the Effect Category.

Every spell starts with a purpose. Choose one primary category:

Step 2: Set Range and Duration.

Each step beyond the base adds 1 Trial Die.

Step 3: Set Strain Cost.

Strain is the caster's physical and mental cost.

Step 4: Set Final Difficulty.

Total all additions from Steps 1–3. This is the number of Trial Dice the caster adds to the pool.

Example: A fire bolt (Damage-targeted = Average, base 2 Trial Dice) at Short range (+1) that is Instant (base) = 3 Trial Dice total. Strain 2.

Step 5: Define Overload and Empower Options.

Every spell should have at least one Overload and one Empower option. These are where character expression lives.

Overload format: "Overload (Trial die): [One specific enhancement]." Add one Trial die to the pool in exchange for a defined upgrade, increased damage, extended range, added target, etc. Limit to 2–3 options. Each is an either/or choice.

Empower format: "On 2 Boons: [Specific additional effect]." Empower triggers after a successful cast, spending symbols from the roll. Common patterns: on 2 Boons (minor bonus), on 3 Boons (moderate bonus), on Breakthrough (significant bonus). Limit to 2–3 options.

Step 6: Write the Fallout Entry (Optional but Recommended).

Fallout describes what happens when the spell succeeds but produces Bane results, or when it fails but produces Boon results. Not every spell needs a fallout entry, but spells that are narratively dangerous (necromancy, planar contact, soul-adjacent magic) should have one.

Worked Example: Gravity Anchor

A counter-gravity working specific to Ix, useful near rifts, in the Shattered Domain, and in Anchor Dragon territory.

Gravity Anchor | Tradition: Arcana | Tier: Journeyman

Effect: One target you can see within Short range is protected from gravity-altering effects for the duration. They treat all gravity-based Banes as if they were one die fewer, and add 1 Boon to checks to resist gravitational abilities (including dragon gravity fields, rift-adjacent distortion, and Shattered Domain traversal).

Difficulty: 3 Trial Dice (Protection base = Average 2, + Short range = +1)

Strain: 2

Duration: Concentration (1 Strain per round to maintain)

Overload (Trial die): Extend to Medium range, or protect two targets instead of one.

Empower: On 2 Boons: Target also adds 1 Boon to Athletics checks for the duration. On Breakthrough: Target is entirely immune to gravity effects for the scene; Concentration ends.

Fallout: On 2 Banes while concentrating: The working overcorrects; the target briefly floats uncontrollably (1 Boon to attacks against them until your next turn).

Balancing New Spells Against the Spell List

The most common design error when building new spells is underpricing them, making them too easy to cast relative to comparable spells in the existing list.

Before finalizing a new spell, find the closest equivalent in the Player Guide spell list and compare:

• Is the difficulty (Trial Dice count) comparable?
• Is the strain cost comparable?
• Are the Overload options comparably powerful?

If the new spell is consistently better than the catalog equivalent at the same difficulty, increase the difficulty by 1 or reduce the Overload options.

The system is balanced around the Strain + Difficulty combination. A very powerful effect at low Strain and low Difficulty will be cast constantly and will dominate play. This is the clearest signal that a spell needs adjustment.