Hardcore Rules
Ability Scores and Skills
Honor
Honor measures understanding of, and willingness to act within, proper etiquette and codes of conduct. This generally impacts first impressions with those to whom honor is important, and may even precede the character as their reputation.
Unlike other abilities, Honor cannot be increased with Ability Score Increases. Instead, increases (or reductions) in Honor are earned through a character’s actions, changing by up to 1 point after most adventures, based on how those actions reflect on the character’s reputation.
Honor Checks
An Honor check can model any attempt to act with social grace or comprehend how to do so.
Presentation. An Honor (Presentation) check covers your attempt to act according to a code of conduct. The GM might also call for an Honor (Presentation) check to determine whether you know what code of conduct a given situation calls for.
Other Honor Checks. An Honor check might be used when you try to accomplish tasks like the following:
- Surrendering while trying to save face
- Trying to determine another character’s Honor score
- Using his or her honorable or dishonorable reputation to influence someone else
Honor Saving Throws.
An Honor saving throw represents an attempt to avoid harm to your reputation by avoiding inadvertently doing something dishonorable. The GM might also use an Honor saving throw in the following situations:
- Resisting the urge to respond to goading or insults from an enemy
- Recognizing when an enemy attempts to trick a character into a breach of honor
Custom Skill List
The skills listed below represent tasks or challenges that are relevant in this setting and not covered well by the default list of skills. This way, you can gain specific proficiency with them. See also later sections for additional rules surrounding gaining skill proficiencies.
Strength Checks
Grip. Hanging on tight to objects and people.
Gunnery. Maintaining and operating cannons.
Dexterity Checks
Craftsmanship. Creating things with your hands.
Constitution Checks
Enduring. Pushing onward despite bodily injury, climate, drunkenness, or other physical harm.
Intelligence Checks
Culture. Picking up on norms and the status quo.
Technology. Understanding mechanisms and gizmos.
Wisdom Checks
Cooking. Preparing healthy food with what you have available.
Driving. Piloting a vehicle. Double Proficiency if proficient with vehicle.
Strategy. Making plans.
Street Smarts. Assessing body language and norms in urban settings.
Charisma Checks
No changes.
Honor Checks
Presentation. Carrying yourself properly in social situations.
–Justifying Skill Variations
One of the main goals of adding these skills is to increase the number of ways players have of approaching problems in a flavorful way. As a result, skills with overlapping scope represent opportunities to roleplay with the game mechanics. To participate, justify your choice of skill by describing how your character would undergo a particular operation using the skill or skills of your choice. You may also find success doing so with a different ability score for the same skill.
Character Creation
When generating your character’s ability scores, roll four 6-sided dice and record the total of the highest three dice. Do this six more times, so that you have seven numbers. Then, assign each number to a score: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Honor.
When selecting a background, race, or other similar option that provides skill proficiencies, you may replace any of those proficiencies with proficiency in any other skill, including homebrew ones. Be sure to consider the ramifications of such choices for your character’s personality and background.
Also, when determining which skills you are proficient with, you may choose two additional skills.
Training Skills
Learning Check. Over the course of two hours, you train a skill. Make a skill check with the skill. If you beat a DC of 15, you gain 1 xp with that skill. You can do this once per day, or twice per day during a long rest (you don’t suffer the long rest penalty). If you have the help of another character who is proficient, you can either gain advantage on your roll or make two checks in one training period.
Skill Mastery (Stacking Proficiencies)
When multiple sources of proficiency apply to the same check, your prowess culminates into a masterful display of skill. Before adding modifiers to a check, add together the number of times you would otherwise add your proficiency bonus and refer to the table below.
| Applicable Proficiencies | Level of Mastery |
| 1 (10 exp) | Half Proficiency. Add Half your proficiency modifier to checks made with this skill. |
| 2 (30 exp) | Proficiency. Add your proficiency modifier to checks made with this skill |
| 3 (60 exp) | Expertise. Add twice your proficiency modifier to checks made with this skill. |
| 4 (100 exp) | General Mastery. Add twice your proficiency modifier and when you roll a 5 or lower on a check made with this skill, treat the roll as an 8. |
| 5 (150 exp) | Skilled Mastery. Add twice your proficiency modifier and when you roll a 7 or lower on a check made with this skill, treat the roll as an 11. |
| 6 (210 exp) | Absolute Mastery. Add twice your proficiency modifier and when you roll a 9 or lower on a check made with this skill, treat the roll as a 13. |
For example, if you have double proficiency with both Dexterity (Craftsmanship) checks and Carpenter’s Tools, then when attempting to carve a small wooden sailboat, you would have four applicable proficiencies, and thus would make the check with Skilled Mastery.
Adventuring
Resting
This campaign will use modified gritty realism resting rules, putting an emphasis on careful management of resources. If it wasn’t already apparent, seafaring is perilous at the best of times, so be careful with how you engage with its threats, especially the sentient and/or hostile kind.
Downtime
Whereas most adventurers put aside all duties to rest, the life of a sailor often demands more from you. While you may spend downtime resting and performing other light activities as normal, you can also continue aiding your crewmates with tasks even while resting, just not at peak performance. All d20 tests you make or help with while resting suffer a -4 penalty. That said, you can end your rest prematurely at any time, potentially forgoing its benefits to remove the penalty.
You can also train skills twice as quickly during downtime on land or with adequate materials on your ship or five times as fast when being taught by someone with mastery in a skill. Once the Player is of the same level of Mastery as their trainer they can no longer gain the benefit of being trained by them.
Short Rests at Sea
A short rest is a period of downtime at least 8 hours long.
A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains Hit Points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a Long Rest, as explained below.
A character receives half of ones spell slots and other class specific charges after completing a short rest in addition to regaining those charges/spell slot equal to the number rolled on the first hit dice used (Minimum 1).
Long Rests at Sea
A long rest is a period of extended downtime, starting at 7 days long. If the character interrupts the rest, they may gain the benefits of a short rest if they had rested for at least 8 hours. The overall length of your rest may be reduced or effected in the following ways:
| Check | Task | Rest Reduction |
| DC 18 Constitution (Endure)After 3 days of rest. Check made by Resting Player | You push through your daily work despite still healing. You don’t suffer the downtime penalty this day. | — |
| DC 18 Wisdom (Cooking). Check made by Resting Player or other Party Member | Consuming a hearty meal. | 2 |
| DC 18 Wisdom (Medicine). Check made by Other Party Member | Mending your wounds, both physical and mental. | 2 |
At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them (minimum of one die).
Resting on Land
On solid ground, you can complete a short rest in 1 hour and a long rest in 8 hours. Rest time reduction methods don’t apply to rests done this way unless done at an inn or other form of housing. You only gain the benefits described in the Player’s Handbook if you rest in a makeshift camp. You gain an additional place to place specific benefit when it is done at an inn or other form of housing.
If you Rest in a Makeshift Camp during poor weather the Party must make a combined Survival Check. On a success your Camp is well constructed and combats the effects of the weather. If the party fails by more than 15 then they gain all the regular benefits of a rest but lose half of their hit dice. If the Party fails by more than 30 they gain no benefits from the rest other than regaining spell slots and other class related charges. The check begins at a static DC 15 and increases by 15’s depending on the level of harshness the weather is, of which there are 5 tiers (Light, Medium, Heavy, Insane, Torrential) making the DC maximum 75.