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This System Reference Document is available for download from www.cakebreadandwalton.com and is freely distributable under the OGL license (see end of document for details).

The Renaissance system forms the rules bedrock of Cakebread & Walton's historical fantasy role-playing game, Clockwork & Chivalry, published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and available from all good game stores.

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What is a Role-playing Game?

Role-playing games are „Let's pretend” for grown-ups. Players take on the roles of characters in an imaginary world and play out adventures. To avoid the old children's arguments of „I shot you!”, „No you didn't, I'm wearing bullet-proof armour!” there are rules, and dice are rolled to see whether (for instance) the shot hit, and whether the armour provided any protection. In overall charge of the game is the Games Master, who presents a story to the other players, adjudicates the rules, and keeps the game moving. You don't need to dress up and run around, everything can be done around a table with a bunch of dice, some paper and a few pencils.

A role-playing game can last as little as two or three hours, but many games involve long plots that carry on from week to week like a TV series, the characters gaining experience and new skills, defeating old villains, meeting new ones and generally acting like heroes. If you've only ever played computer role-playing, you'll find this a whole new experience - you can say exactly what you want to say, attempt to do whatever you want to do, and the Games Master can tell you what happens - unrestrained by the limits of a computer game's programming. You're limited only by your imagination - and I don't know about you, but my imagination has the best special effects ever!

What Will I Need to Play?

So, what else will you need apart from this book, a bunch of friends and some imagination?

A set of polyhedral dice

These are obtained from either online suppliers or your local game store. As well as the familiar six-sided dice that come with most board games, you will need dice with four, eight, ten, twelve and twenty sides. Dice are referred to as Dx in the rules, where x is the number of sides of the dice. For example, D10 refers to a ten sided die.

The most commonly used dice are D100, not actually a hundred sided die but two D10s (usually of different colours) that are rolled together. Before the dice are thrown, it is decided which will be tens and which will be units. E.g., if you have a green D10 and a red D10, you might decide that the red one is the tens die. If you roll 7 on the red die, and 4 on the green die, you would read this as 74. If you get 00, this counts as 100, not zero.

Sometimes the rules will tell you to roll 2D6, or 1D8+4, or something similar. 2D6 means roll 2 six-sided dice and add the results of the dice together. 1D8+4 means roll 1 eight-sided die and add 4 to the result.

Paper

You'll need paper for taking notes and drawing maps a, or other explanatory pictures and diagrams. Each player will also need a character sheet - either photocopied from the back of this book, or downloaded from www.cakebreadandwalton.com.

Miniatures?

Some people use miniature figures (or buttons, bottle tops, small china penguins and the like) to help keep track of where characters are, particularly in combat. Some Games Masters create elaborate battle maps for their fight scenes. Other players totally ignore such game aids and everything goes on in the imaginations of the players. It's entirely up to you what suits you best!

Glossary

This is a list of many of the technical terms used in the Renaissance rules.

Adventure: A single story in which the Adventurers have a part. Rather like a single episode of a TV series.

Adventurer: A character controlled by a player rather than the Games Master.

APs: Armour Points, the measure of the protection provided by armour. Represented by two numbers (e.g. 2/1), the first number representing protection against most weapons, the second against guns.

Attribute: Secondary attributes of your character, based on the character's Characteristics.

Campaign: A series of connected adventures involving the same Adventurers. Rather like an entire TV series.

CHA: Charisma (Characteristic), a measure of your character's attractiveness and leadership qualities.

Characteristic: A measure of your character's basic abilities: Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Power, Dexterity and Charisma.

Combat Action: An action taken in a combat round, which usually involves attacking another character.

Combat Round: A short period of about 5 seconds, during which a character in combat can perform a Combat Action, a Reaction and a Move Action.

CON: Constitution (Characteristic), a measure of your character's healthiness and ability to resist wounds, poisons, diseases and the like.

Critical Success: A roll of one tenth of a character's skill, which means that the task has been performed particularly well. A Critical Success during combat is called a Critical Hit and causes more damage than normal.

DEX: Dexterity (Characteristic), a measure of your character's agility, co-ordination and speed of action.

DM: Damage Modifier (Attribute), a die roll added to the damage caused by Close Combat weapons.

ENC: Encumbrance, an abstract measure of how difficult an item is to carry and lift.

Faction: The religious, political or social group that defines a character's beliefs and outlook on the world. Each character belongs to one Faction and may sympathize with additional Factions.

Fumble: A skill roll of 00, which means that the attempted task has been performed spectacularly badly.

Games Master: The player who comes up with ideas for adventures, runs the game, controls NPCs, adjudicates the rules, etc.

Hero Points: Points that are used to perform spectacular actions, save a character from death, and the like.

HPs: Hit Points (Attribute), the measure of how much damage a character can take before death.

INT: Intelligence (Characteristic), a measure of your characters ability to think, solve problems and learn.

Improvement Points: Points earned for taking part in adventures, which are spent to increase the skills and Characteristics of a character.

MAG: Magick (Attribute), a measure of the inherent magickal power of a practitioner of Witchcraft.

Major Wound: A wound that does significant damage on top of Hit Point loss. There are two types: Serious Wounds, which are temporary, and Grave Wounds, which are permanent and can be fatal.

Movement Action: An combat action that involves movement, such as walking, running, etc.

Movement Rate: (Attribute) The distance a character can move in a single combat round. For most characters, this is 15 metres.

MPs: Magick Points, a measure of how much magickal energy is stored in an Alchemist's Philosopher's Stone.

MWL: Major Wound Level (Attribute), a measure of how much damage a character can take before taking a Major Wound.

NPC: Non-Player Character, a character who is controlled by the Games Master rather than one of the players.

POW: Power (Characteristic), a measure of your character's strength of will.

Profession: A character's career before becoming an Adventurer, or current career if an NPC.

Reaction: An action in combat, usually reacting to another characters actions for the purposes of defence.

RPs: Righteousness Points, a measure of a character's strength of belief in his or her chosen Faction.

SIZ: Size (Characteristic), a measure of your character's height and bulk.

Skill: A focussed ability in a mental or physical discipline which can get better with practice. Common Skills are those every character possesses to some degree, Advanced Skills can only be used by those who have trained in them.

Social Class: The level of society into which a character was born and grew up.

STR: Strength (Characteristic), a measure of your character's brawn and brute force.