Multiverse TTRPG Core Rules

Common Actions and Skill Checks

The heart of Multiverse lies in its flexible approach to resolving actions through the trait system. Rather than having rigid rules for every possible situation, the game provides a framework that can adapt to virtually any challenge your characters might face. This section explores how to apply that framework to common scenarios, demonstrating how the same basic mechanics can handle everything from delicate negotiations to death-defying stunts.

Remember, the goal isn’t to memorize specific rules for specific situations, but to understand how the trait system works so you can apply it creatively to whatever your characters attempt. When in doubt, identify which trait best represents what the character is trying to accomplish, determine if it’s a standard difficulty check or a contested roll against an opponent, and let the dice and roleplay tell the story.

Heroic Token Reminder
Heroes gain heroic tokens when they fail an action. This means a single combat roll may give one, but also extended actions. To better balance, it is better to give them at the end of the action. For more information about heroic tokens, see the Traits chapter.

Social Interactions

Social encounters form the backbone of many Multiverse sessions, providing opportunities for characters to gather information, build alliances, and resolve conflicts without violence. The key to compelling social scenes is remembering that the dice support the roleplay, not replace it.

When to Roll vs. When to Roleplay: Not every social interaction requires a skill check. If a player delivers a compelling argument that addresses an NPC’s known motivations, or if they’re asking for something the NPC would readily agree to, let the roleplay carry the scene. Save skill checks for moments when the outcome is genuinely uncertain or when success requires overcoming significant resistance.

Contested Social Rolls: Most social challenges involve contested rolls between the character’s approach and the target’s resistance:

• Charm vs. Spirit: Persuasion, inspiration, seduction, or leadership attempts
• Charm vs. Brains: Deception, misdirection, or fast-talking
• Brains vs. Brains: Debates, logical arguments, or negotiations based on facts
• Fight vs. Spirit: Intimidation through displays of force or threats

Modifying Social Rolls: Circumstances should heavily influence social skill checks:

• Relationship bonuses: +1 to +3 for trusted friends, -1 to -3 for known enemies
• Leverage: +2 to +5 when you have something the target wants or needs
• Evidence: +1 to +3 when you can prove your claims or demonstrate your points
• Consequences: -2 to -5 when asking someone to risk something important to them

Exploration and Investigation

The world is full of mysteries waiting to be uncovered, from ancient ruins hiding forgotten secrets to crime scenes that tell stories of what transpired. Exploration and investigation in Multiverse emphasize creative problem-solving and collaborative discovery rather than rigid procedural mechanics.

Information Gathering: The core of most investigation involves collecting clues, interviewing witnesses, and piecing together incomplete information. Rather than hiding crucial plot information behind single skill checks, good investigations offer multiple paths to discover what characters need to know:

• Brains checks for logical deduction, pattern recognition, or academic research
• Charm checks for getting people to open up and share what they know
• Agility checks for sneaking into restricted areas or pickpocketing evidence
• Spirit checks for maintaining focus during lengthy research or resisting mental fatigue

Environmental Challenges: Exploration often involves navigating dangerous or challenging terrain. These situations call for creative application of different traits based on the character’s approach:

• Athleticism for climbing, swimming, or enduring harsh conditions
• Agility for moving quietly, maintaining balance, or squeezing through tight spaces
• Brains for navigation, understanding architectural layouts, or solving puzzles
• Fight for breaking through barriers or dealing with hostile creatures

The Three-Clue Rule: When designing investigations, ensure that every crucial piece of information can be discovered through at least three different approaches. This prevents the story from stalling if players fail a single roll or don’t think to pursue a specific line of inquiry.

Investigation Modifiers:

• Time pressure: -2 to -4 when rushing or working under deadlines
• Poor conditions: -1 to -3 for bad lighting, weather, or loud environments
• Quality equipment: +1 to +3 for specialized tools, labs, or resources
• Expertise: +2 to +5 when investigating something directly related to character background

Extended Actions and Skill Challenges

Some goals are too complex to resolve with a single skill check. Extended actions represent sustained effort over time, whether that’s researching an ancient mystery, building a fortress, or winning someone’s trust through a series of interactions.

When to Use Extended Actions:

• The task logically requires significant time and effort
• Multiple approaches or skill sets could contribute to success
• You want to create tension around a long-term goal
• The process itself is as interesting as the final outcome

Tiered Challenges: The simplest extended action requires a specific number of successful rolls at the same difficulty. For example, “Research the Lost Kingdom” might require 4 successful Brains checks at difficulty 12, representing weeks of library work, translation, and cross-referencing sources.

Progressive Difficulty: More complex challenges increase in difficulty as characters get closer to their goal. “Infiltrate the Noble’s Estate” might start with easy social checks to gain initial access, then moderate stealth checks to avoid guards, and finally difficult skill checks to reach the inner sanctum undetected.

Collaborative Challenges: The most engaging extended actions allow multiple characters to contribute using different approaches. “Escape the Collapsing City” might let characters use:

• Brains to find the safest evacuation routes
• Athleticism to help civilians climb over rubble
• Charm to keep panicking crowds organized
• Fight to clear blocked passages or fight off looters

Failure and Complications: Extended actions shouldn’t stop cold when a character fails a roll. Instead, failure should introduce complications, delays, or increased costs. A failed research check might mean the character finds misleading information, requiring extra work to sort truth from fiction. A failed infiltration check might trigger additional security measures without completely blowing the mission.

Resource Management: Extended actions can incorporate resource costs beyond just Ability Points. Characters might need to spend money on equipment, use favors with contacts, or risk their reputation to achieve their goals. This creates meaningful choices about how much characters are willing to invest in their objectives.

Breaking Objects and Sundering

Sometimes characters need to destroy obstacles, break down doors, or sunder enemy equipment during their adventures. Objects in Multiverse have two key statistics: a minimum DC that must be met before any damage can be dealt, and a Durability score representing how much cumulative damage the object can sustain before being destroyed.

Damage Threshold: Each object has a minimum DC that represents its basic resistance to damage. Only attacks that meet or exceed this threshold can damage the object at all. This reflects the reality that some materials are simply too tough for certain weapons or attacks to affect meaningfully. A dagger might scratch a stone wall but cannot meaningfully damage it, while a sledgehammer can make real progress against the same barrier.

Durability and Destruction: Once the damage threshold is met, the object takes damage equal to the amount by which the attack exceeded the DC. For example, if a wooden door has a DC 8 and Durability 15, and a character achieves a total attack result of 12, the door would take 4 points of damage (12 - 8 = 4). When an object’s accumulated damage equals or exceeds its Durability score, it is destroyed, broken, or rendered useless.

Material Properties: Different materials respond differently to various types of attacks. Crushing weapons deal double damage against brittle materials like glass or ceramic, while cutting weapons might be particularly effective against rope or fabric. Fire-based attacks could be especially damaging to wooden objects but largely ineffective against stone or metal. The GM should consider these properties when determining how different attack types interact with various materials.

Sample Objects and Durability

Attacking Worn Equipment: When attempting to sunder equipment that someone is wearing or wielding, the attack must first succeed against the person’s normal defenses before it can target the equipment. This represents the difficulty of striking specific items while the owner is actively trying to prevent such attacks. Some abilities and combat maneuvers specifically focus on attacking enemy equipment rather than the person directly.

Environmental Destruction: Characters might attempt to bring down structures, collapse bridges, or destroy large installations. These massive objects typically require extended challenges rather than simple attack rolls, with characters needing to identify structural weak points, coordinate their efforts, or use appropriate tools and techniques to achieve their destructive goals.

Ritual Magic and Extended Abilities

Ritual magic represents the pinnacle of extended supernatural practice—elaborate ceremonies, complex technological constructions, or intensive collaborative efforts that achieve effects far beyond normal ability use. What we call “ritual magic” adapts to fit any setting: mystical ceremonies in fantasy worlds, complex engineering projects in technological societies, or intensive research programs in modern settings.

The key principle behind rituals is that extraordinary results require extraordinary effort, time, and risk. A single character might spend hours or days working toward a goal, or multiple characters might collaborate on projects that none could accomplish alone. The ritual system provides a framework for these grand endeavors while maintaining the tension and possibility of failure that makes success meaningful.

Beyond Normal Abilities: Rituals allow characters to achieve effects that go well beyond their normal capabilities. A character with basic elemental abilities might perform a ritual to permanently change the weather over a region. Someone with minor healing powers might attempt to cure a supernatural plague. A technician might spend weeks building a device that can breach dimensional barriers.

Setting Adaptation: The mechanical framework remains consistent, but the narrative description changes dramatically based on your campaign world. Fantasy settings feature elaborate magical ceremonies with rare components and mystical symbols, while modern or technological campaigns might involve complex engineering projects requiring specialized equipment and expertise. Science fiction worlds could frame these as advanced scientific research or prototype development, and urban fantasy settings often combine traditional magic with modern resources and knowledge.

Progressive Costs: Rituals use a mechanic that builds toward success through accumulated effort while maintaining constant risk of catastrophic failure. Each ritual has three key numbers: the Total Cost (the cumulative total that successful rolls must reach to complete the ritual), the Minimum Roll (the difficulty threshold each individual roll must meet to contribute to success), and the Failure Threshold (the maximum number of failed rolls before the ritual fails completely).

The ritual process begins by establishing the goal and setting these three numbers based on the complexity and power of the desired effect. Characters then make skill checks using appropriate traits, usually Brains for research and planning, Spirit for maintaining focus, or specific abilities related to the ritual’s nature. Each successful roll that meets or exceeds the Minimum Roll adds its result to the running total toward the Total Cost, while each failed roll counts toward the Failure Threshold. The ritual succeeds when the Total Cost is reached, but fails completely if the Failure Threshold is exceeded first.

Collaborative Rituals: Multiple characters can work together on rituals, with each participant making their own rolls that contribute to the total. This allows for more ambitious projects but increases the risk of failure, as each participant’s failed rolls count toward the Failure Threshold. Collaborative rituals work best when each character contributes something unique to the process—one character handles the theoretical framework, another gathers rare components, a third provides the raw power needed for the effect, and so on. This creates opportunities for characters with different skill sets to work together on projects that showcase everyone’s strengths.

Sample Rituals:

(Optional Rule) Blood Sacrifices
Some campaigns may choose to explore darker themes where desperate characters resort to blood magic to fuel their rituals. Under this optional rule, participants can sacrifice their own resilience to contribute additional power to the ritual’s AP Cost requirement. For every 1 point of resilience voluntarily sacrificed, the character may roll 1d4 and add the result to the ritual’s accumulated AP Cost. This represents the magical potency of life force willingly given.

Far more sinister is the practice of taking life to fuel magical workings. If a living creature is killed specifically to power a ritual, the death provides 1d10 AP Cost for every point of resilience the victim possessed at the time of their death. This reflects the immense magical energy released when a life is deliberately ended, but engaging in such practices marks characters as having crossed into truly dark territory.

These rules are intended for mature campaigns that can handle such themes responsibly. Blood sacrifice should carry serious moral, social, and potentially supernatural consequences. Characters who engage in ritual murder may find themselves hunted by authorities, cursed by vengeful spirits, or corrupted by the dark forces they’ve embraced.

In technological settings, these same mechanics might represent prototype development projects, data archaeology efforts to recover lost information from corrupted systems, system integration work to merge incompatible technologies, network infiltration attempts against heavily secured computer systems, or genetic sequencing projects to develop treatments for previously incurable conditions. The mechanical framework remains identical, but the narrative framing shifts to match the campaign’s technological and thematic focus.

Failed rituals create more than just wasted time—they often generate problems that must be dealt with as part of the ongoing story. Magical backlash might release uncontrolled energy that affects the area or participants, while unwanted attention could attract hostile entities or authorities to investigate the disturbance. Resource depletion consumes rare components without achieving the goal, temporal effects might create time distortions around the participants, and dimensional rifts could tear temporary holes in reality that create ongoing hazards for the surrounding area.

Smart characters invest time in research and preparation before attempting major rituals. This preparation phase might involve researching the theoretical framework through Brains checks that can reduce the Minimum Roll requirement by one or two points, gathering superior components by spending money or resources to gain bonuses to individual rolls, choosing optimal timing and location to gain environmental bonuses, or recruiting skilled assistants to participate in collaborative efforts. These preparatory investments create meaningful choices about how much characters are willing to commit to their ambitious goals.

The ritual system encourages players to think beyond immediate tactical concerns toward longer-term objectives that require significant investment of time and resources. Success feels earned through sustained effort and careful planning, while failure creates interesting complications that can drive future adventures and provide new story hooks for the GM to develop.

Chases and Pursuits

Few things create immediate tension like a desperate chase through dangerous terrain, whether that involves fleeing assassins through crowded city streets, pursuing a villain across rooftops, or engaging in a high-speed vehicle pursuit through heavy traffic. Chase scenes in Multiverse use structured skill challenges that emphasize creative problem-solving and dramatic storytelling over complex positioning mechanics.

The key to exciting chases is treating them as extended contests where both sides actively work toward their goals while obstacles and complications create ongoing challenges. Rather than simple back-and-forth rolls, chase scenes involve multiple types of checks that reflect the varied skills needed to navigate complex, high-speed scenarios successfully.

Chase Structure: Most chases operate as extended contests between the pursuing and fleeing parties, with each side making rolls to gain or maintain distance while dealing with environmental obstacles. The basic structure involves alternating rounds where each participant makes skill checks, with success increasing their advantage and failure creating complications or reducing their lead.

Distance and Advantage: Instead of tracking precise distances, chase scenes use abstract “distance categories” that represent the relationship between participants. Close Range means the parties are within immediate interaction distance, Medium Range represents a significant but not insurmountable gap, and Long Range indicates that one side has gained substantial advantage. The goal for pursuers is to close distance until they can force a confrontation, while those being chased want to increase distance until they can escape entirely.

Environmental Challenges: The most memorable chase scenes involve more than just speed—they require participants to navigate obstacles, make split-second decisions, and adapt to changing circumstances. Dense crowds might require Agility checks to weave between people without slowing down, while rough terrain could demand Athleticism rolls to maintain footing. Urban environments might offer opportunities for Brains-based shortcuts or Charm-based attempts to get help from bystanders.

Vehicle Chases: When chases involve vehicles, the character’s driving skill (typically Agility or Brains depending on whether the situation emphasizes reflexes or tactical thinking) becomes the primary trait, though passengers might contribute through other actions. A character might use Fight to lean out and attack pursuing vehicles, Brains to navigate complex routes, or Spirit to maintain focus during high-stress maneuvers.

Complications and Obstacles: Every few rounds, introduce complications that affect all participants and require additional skill checks. A construction site might force everyone to make Agility checks to navigate scaffolding and equipment. Heavy rain could impose penalties on movement checks while creating opportunities for characters with appropriate blessings or abilities to gain advantages. These complications prevent chase scenes from becoming repetitive exchanges of the same skill checks.

Multiple Participants: Chase scenes often involve more than two parties, with allies working together to achieve their goals. Team members can assist each other’s rolls, create obstacles for opponents, or pursue different objectives simultaneously. One character might focus on maintaining speed while another handles navigation, and a third deals with incoming attacks or environmental hazards.

Chase Resolution: Chases end when one side achieves their objective or circumstances change dramatically enough to shift the scene’s focus. Successful pursuers force a confrontation or capture their quarry, while successful escape artists gain enough distance to break contact and find safety. Sometimes environmental factors or third-party intervention changes the situation entirely, transforming a chase into a different type of scene.

The most important element in chase scenes is maintaining narrative momentum while giving all participants meaningful choices about their approach. Characters should feel that their individual skills and creative thinking can influence the outcome, not just their raw speed statistics.

Combat

Personal combat in Multiverse revolves around contested rolls between attackers and defenders, creating dynamic exchanges where both participants actively influence the outcome. Rather than passive armor class systems or static defense numbers, every attack becomes a dramatic confrontation between the attacker’s skill and the defender’s ability to avoid or minimize incoming damage.

Basic Combat Resolution: When one character attacks another, the attacker makes a skill check using the appropriate trait for their chosen method of attack. This is typically Fight for melee weapons or unarmed combat, though other traits can apply depending on the situation and weapon properties. The defender simultaneously makes an Agility check to dodge, parry, or otherwise avoid the incoming attack. Both participants roll their respective dice, apply any relevant modifiers from abilities or circumstances, and compare the final results.

Determining Damage: If the attacker’s total equals or exceeds the defender’s total, the attack succeeds. The amount of damage dealt equals the difference between the attacker’s result and the defender’s result, plus any bonus damage from weapons or abilities. For example, if an attacker rolls 14 and the defender rolls 10, the base damage would be 4 points. If the attacker was using a longsword (which provides +3 damage), the total damage would be 7 points.

Armor and Damage Reduction: After determining the raw damage amount, subtract any damage reduction provided by the defender’s armor or protective abilities. This represents the armor’s ability to absorb, deflect, or distribute the impact of successful attacks. For instance, if the 7 points of damage from the previous example struck a character wearing chain mail (which provides 4 points of damage reduction), the final damage to the character’s resilience would be 3 points.

Weapon Properties in Combat: Different weapons provide various tactical advantages beyond their basic damage bonuses. Light weapons allow characters to use Agility instead of Fight for their attack rolls, representing weapons that emphasize speed and precision over raw strength. Weapons with the Wounding property can cause ongoing bleeding damage when they achieve particularly successful strikes. Crushing weapons deal double damage against inanimate objects like doors or barriers. Understanding these properties allows characters to choose the right tool for different combat situations.

Combat Flow and Initiative: Combat typically operates using structured turns with initiative order determining when each participant acts. During each turn, a character can move to a new position, activate an ability, and make a combat-type action such as attacking or using a combat maneuver. This action economy allows for tactical flexibility while maintaining clear structure and pacing.

Advanced Combat Actions: Characters often attempt multiple actions simultaneously, such as shoving an opponent while striking them, or trying to disarm someone while moving to a better position. When attempting multiple actions in a single turn, each action requires its own separate roll, and all actions suffer a penalty based on the complexity of the combination. Simple combinations like attacking while moving typically impose a -1 modifier to all actions. More complex combinations such as attacking while performing a combat maneuver carry a -2 penalty, while highly complex sequences like attempting to disarm, trip, and strike an opponent simultaneously might impose -3 or higher penalties at the GM’s discretion. The general principle is that each additional layer of complexity adds another -1 to the penalty, representing the increasing difficulty of coordinating multiple intricate maneuvers simultaneously.

Some actions may be so complex or elaborate that the GM rules they cannot be completed in a single turn, requiring the character to break the sequence across multiple turns instead. This might apply to particularly intricate maneuvers, actions requiring extended setup time, or combinations that would be physically impossible to execute simultaneously.

Advanced Combat Techniques: Beyond basic attacks, characters can attempt various maneuvers that use the same contested roll framework with different traits or modifiers. Disarming attempts might use Fight contested against the opponent’s Fight or Agility. Tripping attacks could employ Athleticism against the target’s Agility. Intimidation through combat presence might use Charm contested against the opponent’s Spirit. These techniques demonstrate how the flexible trait system can handle complex combat situations without requiring separate subsystems for each possible action.

Cover and Environmental Protection

The battlefield environment significantly affects combat outcomes, with cover and concealment providing crucial tactical advantages for characters who know how to use them effectively. Cover represents physical obstacles that can block or deflect incoming attacks, while concealment makes characters harder to target accurately without necessarily providing physical protection.

Types of Cover: Cover categories are determined by how much of the target they conceal and how substantial the protection they provide. Light cover includes things like tall grass, thin walls, or partial concealment behind furniture, providing a +2 bonus to the defender’s Agility roll. This represents the attacker’s difficulty in targeting vital areas when the target is partially obscured. Heavy cover involves substantial obstacles like thick walls, large trees, or overturned vehicles that conceal most of the target’s body, providing a +4 bonus to defensive rolls. Total cover means the target is completely hidden behind impenetrable obstacles, making direct attacks impossible until the tactical situation changes.

Ally Positioning and Interference: Other characters on the battlefield can provide cover through strategic positioning. When an ally stands between an attacker and their target, they can provide light cover (+2 to the defender’s roll) by making it difficult for the attacker to find clear shots or strike angles. This positioning cover works best when the interfering character is roughly the same size as the target and is actively trying to block the attack. Characters providing positional cover put themselves at risk—if the attack roll exceeds the original target’s defense but would have missed without the cover bonus, the covering ally becomes the target instead.

Using Cover Tactically: Characters can move between different cover positions as part of their movement during combat, though doing so might expose them to attacks from opponents who are ready to take advantage of the transition. Smart combatants position themselves to maximize their own cover while minimizing their opponents’ protection. This might involve flanking maneuvers to attack enemies from angles where their cover provides less protection, or using area-effect abilities that can bypass cover entirely.

Cover vs. Concealment: Physical cover provides actual protection by interposing solid barriers between the attacker and target, while concealment merely makes targeting more difficult without offering protection if the attack connects. Smoke, darkness, or magical obscurement typically provide concealment rather than true cover, imposing penalties on the attacker’s roll rather than bonuses to the defender’s roll. Characters hiding in shadow might be harder to hit accurately, but successful attacks deal full damage since there’s no physical barrier absorbing the impact.

Environmental Advantages: Beyond static cover, the combat environment offers various tactical opportunities. Elevation advantages might provide bonuses to ranged attacks. Difficult terrain could impose movement penalties or require additional skill checks to navigate safely during combat. Weather conditions like rain or snow might affect visibility and movement for all participants. The most engaging combat encounters use environmental factors to create tactical choices and dramatic opportunities rather than simply serving as neutral backdrops for the action.

Cover and environmental factors should enhance rather than complicate combat encounters. They provide tactical options for clever characters while creating dramatic moments when combatants must choose between safety and effectiveness, making every fight feel unique and memorable.

Group Combat and Mass Battles

Not every conflict involves a small group of heroes facing a handful of opponents in personal combat. Sometimes characters find themselves leading armies into battle, coordinating complex tactical operations, or fighting as part of larger conflicts where individual sword swings matter far less than strategic decisions and unit coordination. Mass battle scenarios in Multiverse use extended skill challenges that focus on leadership, tactics, and key dramatic moments rather than tracking hundreds of individual combatants.

The fundamental principle behind mass battle resolution is that player characters serve as crucial leaders, specialists, or heroes whose actions can influence the outcome of much larger conflicts. Rather than reducing characters to insignificant parts of vast armies, the system focuses on the moments where individual decisions and capabilities can swing the tide of battle.

Scale and Scope: Mass battles operate at different scales depending on the story’s needs. Small unit actions might involve coordinating a dozen soldiers in urban warfare, while epic fantasy battles could determine the fate of entire kingdoms through massive army conflicts. The mechanical framework remains consistent, but the narrative description and stakes change dramatically based on the conflict’s scope and importance.

Character Roles in Mass Combat: Each player character typically assumes a specific role that determines how they contribute to the overall battle effort. Tactical leaders make Brains checks to outmaneuver enemy commanders and position forces advantageously. Inspiring commanders use Charm to rally troops and maintain morale during difficult moments. Elite warriors might undertake Fight-based missions to eliminate key targets or break through enemy lines. Support specialists could use various abilities to provide critical advantages at crucial moments.

Battle Phases: Large-scale conflicts typically develop through distinct phases that create natural dramatic structure. The initial deployment phase involves positioning forces and making opening tactical decisions. The engagement phase represents the main battle where both sides commit their resources and execute their strategies. Crisis moments occur when unexpected developments threaten to change the battle’s outcome, requiring immediate responses from key leaders. The resolution phase determines the final outcome and establishes consequences for both victory and defeat.

Victory Conditions: Mass battles succeed or fail based on achieving specific objectives rather than simply eliminating all enemies. These objectives might include capturing strategic positions, protecting important locations or individuals, achieving specific casualty ratios, or maintaining unit cohesion under extreme pressure. The most engaging mass battles present multiple potential victory conditions, allowing characters to pursue different approaches based on their strengths and the developing situation.

Key Moments and Individual Actions: Even in massive conflicts, individual heroic actions can influence the overall outcome. These moments typically occur during crisis phases when quick thinking and exceptional performance can address critical problems. A character might use their abilities to counter enemy magic that’s decimating allied forces, lead a desperate charge to break through enemy lines at a crucial moment, or rally routing troops through inspirational leadership during the battle’s darkest hour.

Consequences and Aftermath: Mass battle outcomes create lasting consequences that extend far beyond the immediate conflict. Victory might establish new political relationships, open access to important resources, or eliminate major threats to civilian populations. Defeat could force characters to deal with the aftermath of failed leadership, the loss of allies and resources, or occupation by hostile forces. These consequences provide material for future adventures while making the battle’s outcome feel meaningful and permanent.

Extended Challenge Structure: Mass battles use the extended challenge framework with multiple success requirements across different skill areas. Characters might need to achieve tactical successes through Brains checks, maintain morale through Charm rolls, execute critical missions through Fight or other appropriate skills, and adapt to changing circumstances through various trait applications. The total number of required successes and the difficulty levels should scale with the battle’s scope and the opposition’s competence.

Mass battle scenarios work best when they provide each character with opportunities to contribute meaningfully using their individual strengths while maintaining focus on the larger conflict’s strategic and narrative elements. The goal is creating epic moments where individual heroism influences vast conflicts without losing the personal stakes that make character actions matter.