This app is designed to help you to learn the basic rules of the game. You command the characters Arden the blade, Sil the shadow, and Lyra the flame. Help them on their quests towards becoming true heroes.
While the overall theme of the game, fantasy adventure table-top role playing, may already be familiar to you — the game mechanics are unique.
This is a class-less, level-less system where anyone can attempt anything at any time. Skills that you practice will become stronger, those you neglect will stagnate. Your character sheet is a biography, not a straitjacket.
The game rewards only one thing — succeeding when failure is a real possibility. In game this is represented by underspending on effort, relying instead on skill. Success will earn you milestones, which may in turn be converted into skill improvements.
You will need to develop skills in the smaller quests if you hope to survive the Caves of Chaos.
PS/ Hero's Gambit is a TTRPG, played with dice and friends around a table. This app is just to help you learn the combat system.
Parchments nailed to weathered oak, sealed by the Castellan of the Keep.
Roll the DC die + relevant Skill + Attribute + modifiers vs the tier DC. Wounded gives −1, Maimed −3 to all rolls. Natural max = critical (+1 damage step); natural 1 = catastrophe.
T1 Basic DC10/1EP · T2 Skilled DC15/3EP · T3 Advanced DC20/5EP · T4 Masterful DC25/7EP · T5 Legendary DC30/10EP. Attack feats deal damage steps equal to tier, reduced by the target's armour soak.
Healthy → Hurt → Wounded (−1) → Maimed (−3) → Unconscious → Dead. Easy foes (kobolds, goblins, skeletons) drop from a single telling blow.
Six pools (2 × Attribute + Skill each): Stamina, Cunning, Mana, Grace, Tenacity, Inspiration. Pools refill after every encounter, but each encounter adds +1 fatigue, which sets a floor under every pool. If you can't afford a feat you may still attempt a tier-1 feat on a d12 (no milestone). Short rest halves fatigue and heals Hurt; long rest clears fatigue and heals Wounded→Hurt; a week's rest mends the Maimed; the chapel's divine magic heals everything — for coin.
Each EP underspent steps the die down one type (the EP cost never drops below 1). A success earns milestones only past the 50% gate — the number you need must sit in the upper half of your die (7+ on d12, 6+ on d10, 5+ on d8, 4+ on d6, 3+ on d4) — and each step dared beyond the gate banks one more milestone from the same roll. Overspending keeps the full d20: if you needed 11+ and succeeded, the desperate gamble earns exactly one milestone (never stacked). Each skill keeps its own tally, and every milestone is resolved at once: the tally rises by 1, then a d6 is rolled — if it lands at or under the tally, the skill improves by 1 and the tally resets; otherwise the lesson is banked and the next milestone rolls against better odds. A tally of six guarantees the breakthrough. Beware: a d4 rolls a natural 1 a quarter of the time.
Combat follows the Combat Turn Procedure: each round, the monsters roll one d6 and every hero rolls their own d6 for initiative. A hero may trade priority for safety — every +1 added to initiative imposes −1 on that hero's next DC roll (the penalty fades at the end of the round if unused; monsters never trade). Higher initiative acts first; heroes win ties. On their turn a hero may move a short distance (movement is quartered in combat) and perform one feat — declare the feat, declare your EP spend (underspend or overspend), then roll. Holding back and passing is always allowed. A hero may also declare multiple actions — up to five feats in one turn. The first is rolled at its normal DC, the second at DC +5, the third at +10, and so on; Endurance is paid only once, for the highest-tier feat queued (with your underspend or overspend applied to that single payment, and the stepped-down die rolled for every action). Multiple successful attacks against the same target are cumulative: their damage is summed and the target's armour soak is subtracted once from the total. When milestones are earned, a window walks you through each conversion — press Roll to add 1 to the tally and roll the d6.
Miss by 1–5: fizzle. 6–10: backlash (+fatigue equal to tier). 11+ or natural 1: catastrophe (take damage steps equal to tier). Every combat roll is shown in full — die result, skill, attribute and all modifiers against the target DC, plus the resulting effect. A fizzle on your own turn is a near miss: you are offered a retry, but at the next tier's DC (+5 per retry). You may adjust your underspend or overspend between attempts and keep retrying until the tier ceiling or your Endurance makes it impossible. Win or lose, you then pay once — the EP cost of the highest feat level attempted, adjusted for your final underspend, with any shortfall overspent from health.
Spider venom forces d20+CON+Survival vs DC 15 or an extra step; the Priest's Hold Person forces d20+WIS+Faith vs DC 15 or you lose your next action.