Core Rules

NB: This does not apply to human monsters by default.

• Call HEAL 1 to someone after 10s of medical roleplay.
• Wield one weapon.
• Have 3 hits.
• Wear armor to gain 3 more hits, if they wish. This does NOT need to be physrepped.
• Have 6 psyche.
• Regain all hits and psyche between encounters.
• Die 4 times per character lifetime without being rendered unplayable.
• Speak quietly on their death count.
• Have enough to live on. (You can be anything from dirt poor to comfortable depending on player preference.)
• Source a set of standard equipment between adventures.
• Source 2 Imperial Essence (call FIGHT ON! to a target within sword reach by scattering ash across them) between adventures.
• Execute an unresisting target by spending 10s of appropriate roleplay killing them.
• Drag an unconscious or bleeding person slowly by using both hands (nb: do not actually drag them).
• Every 6 adventures, gain a Quality on one of your items.

• When someone reaches 0 body hits, they enter their death count.
• This is also known as 'bleeding out'.
• You cannot speak, move, concentrate, or make calls when bleeding out.
• After 60 seconds of bleeding out, you die.
• Taking any HEAL call, including HEAL 0, stops you from bleeding out.
• Medical roleplay pauses your death count.

• Player characters belong to a group of individuals known as the Blessed who are resistant to death.
• When a player character dies, so long as they wish to persist, their body dissipates and reforms elsewhere.
• In play, this means that a player character may rejoin the party after a couple of encounters at GM discretion.
• (OC, we will be looking to do what is most appropriate and makes the most fun for all involved).
• A player can respawn in this way up to four times.

• Psyche measures your strength of will and mental wellbeing.
• A character starts off with 6 psyche and can gain more through buying skills.

• Psychic combat represents your strength of will and ability to resist spiritual effects.
• These combats are always fought with matched weapons.
• In psychic combat, your hits are equal to your psyche.

• Some skills require the user to concentrate for a length of time.
• Concentration is broken by taking offensive effect calls. (If you RESIST or DODGE your Concentration is unbroken.)
• Taking damage does not break concentration, but bleeding out (starting your death count) does.
• If concentration is broken the timer is reset to 0 and the user must begin concentrating again.
• You cannot concentrate while under the effect of a durational call.
• Whilst concentrating you should roleplay appropriately.

• Some abilities which let you call HEAL require the use of 'medical roleplay'.
• Every PC can spend 10 seconds of medical roleplay to call HEAL 1 on somebody else.

• Medical roleplay in Animus is performed the style of spiritual healing, rather than 20th century medicine.
• Medical roleplay does not involve any physical contact.
• Indeed, as with the rest of the system, contact is completely forbidden unless clear consent is given.

• The healer must be within 1m of the patient.
• The healer must use both hands to gesture.
• The healer must be Concentrating.
• The healer cannot make calls EXCEPT reactively (e.g. DODGE, RESIST, VOID).

• You can never perform medical roleplay on yourself.
• When healing, the healer must take blows that hit their weapons or shields as though they had successfully hit their body.
• Medical roleplay pauses the death count of the patient.
• The healer should say 'STAUNCHING' to the patient if they are bleeding out, and it is unclear whether medical roleplay is happening.

• Once medical roleplay is complete, these limitations cease, and the player may make the appropriate HEAL call.

• When referring to game rules on this wiki, specific rules override general ones.
• This does not apply to OC guidance covered in the introduction (Social Contract, Safety, Accessibility.)