Technology: Expect the level of technology you would see in a generic fantasy RPG. Basic gunpowder weapons have been invented, and you can expect some post-medieval technology has been replicated using magic.

Magic: Magic is present in a plethora of shapes and forms; its incredible variety and unpredictability makes it quite difficult to study. There are two primary ways of becoming a capable spellcaster:

• Dedicated training: Although most humans can cast extremely simple spells with only a few months of practice, the amount of training a fresh dedicated mage adventurer can take around ten years. Some people with an innate gift for magic can do so in less time, but it would usually still take over five years of study. Some races with greater or lesser affinities for magic would require more or less training. Once this level of training is attained, learning new spells—even those not related to their primary school of magic (though it is noticeably harder) is easy enough. There are no strings attached to this source of magic, but these are limited in their use; most mortals will easily exhaust their own magical supplies.
• Contact with supernatural beings can bestow unusual magical powers upon people; whether through worship of a god or spirits, a pact with demons, a magical wound left by some unnatural creature, or even stranger sources, a sentient being can gain spellcasting powers based on the source of the powers. These powers are called upon more easily than innate magic, but usually have a price for their use; gods want their followers to worship them in such a way (and will revoke your powers or smite you if you defy them too often), demonic magic may be a double-edged sword, et cetera. The magic granted in this way is restricted in its domain—if a god of healing grants you healing magic, you can’t learn fire magic without learning it the hard way. The magic will be less powerful if the domain is wider.

The Rot: The Rot is a plague that affects earth, tree, and beast alike. It manifests as warty, yellow mushrooms growing on the surface of plants and a thick web of sulfury mycelium covering the ground. Areas lightly affected may only see small patches of the Rot, while thoroughly infected areas will have every tree convered in mushrooms and the grass completely replaced by the mycelium. Living creatures exposed for too long to the Rot will find their immune systems rapidly degrade and will be beset by mundane illnesses. Corpses exposed to the rot will become infested by the mushrooms and will reanimate as a zombie-like creature called a “Rotten”; though intimidating and highly aggressive, these shuffling horrors are weak and are unlikely to kill an average adult, and even decay into nothingness after a week. They do, however, rapidly spread the Rot to other places, and anyone that gets touched by them is likely to contract disease; many believe the shambling drones are therefore heralds of an apocalypse. As the Wrinkle is free of it, you are unlikely to encounter any (unless you left for some reason).

The Wrinkle in the World: The Wrinkle in the World is a roughly- circular “clearing” in an otherwise nearly-impenetrable mountain range. The climate is normally a tad cold, although since fall has only just begun, it is comfortable for most people. The primary source of entry is through the Barrier Pass as it is the safest way inside—though, that isn’t saying much, as the terrain is still harsh and it is home to all manner of deadly creatures that make their homes in the mountains. Right on the outer border of the Wrinkle where the Barrier Pass ends is the modest town of Caldera, home primarily to humans with a small dwarvish community. You know that this town has most amenities an adventurer would want (if you could find anyone, that is), and that two roads lead out of it further into the Wrinkle. Your knowledge of the rest of the Wrinkle is sparse, however, and few outside seem to know what it is like on the inside.

Outside the Wrinkle: The world is vast, and while several regions have succumbed to the Rot, there are many that are mostly touched; everywhere except the Wrinkle itself does have the Rot present in at least small quantities, however. Nothing outside the Wrinkle is set in stone (yet) so feel free to describe the outside world however you want in your backstory.

Currency: In most nations, 100 copper pieces are equal to a single silver piece, and 100 silver pieces are equal to a single gold piece. Since the Wrinkle is somewhat of a frontier, most residents tend to accept currency from every nation at equal value (i.e. 50 copper pieces from one kingdom is equal in value to 50 copper pieces from another, regardless of the exchange rate).

Races: Humans are the most common race throughout the world, but others exist--from standard fantasy fare to more exotic races. I will allow any race you desire, but I would prefer races reasonably similar to humans. I'll be more lenient on this if you have a particularly creative concept for a race, but I would still prefer mostly-mundane humanoids for the sake of maintaining tone.

Since this is a unique gameplay system and it may run into some hiccups or confusion about rules, this is very much tentative. As new situations arise in gameplay I will create rules for them (and give you the chance to re-do things in some cases).

Combat: Combat is turn-based. You declare your actions for a given turn, turn order is calculated on a per-turn basis based on each combatant’s Speed stat, the actions take place in that order, and the next turn begins. If combat is started from a long distance and one side of the fight has ranged capabilities, one to three rounds of ranged combat will begin wherein only ranged attacks can target opposing parties (while the parties move closer).

When one is not using an ability (more on that in a second), you are describing what you are doing in your action. Rather than merely saying “I attack the orc with my longsword” (which you could do), you would also be able describe how you attack them, since how you attack them will have different effects. Maybe you’ll aim for their legs to slow them down, or their head for critical damage. Maybe you’ll go for a pommel strike to try to daze him. If you describe it, I will give it an effect in combat; it might not be a good effect, but careful roleplaying can turn a combat in your favor even without using an ability.

Abilities: Abilities can describe either constant, passive effects that are the result of some noteworthy training your character has OR a unique technique or spell your character can execute as their action for a turn, usually at the cost of focus points (FP). You get three distinct ones to start off with as a level 1 character:
There are several components of an ability:

• Domain: Each ability has a particular stat that is associated with; a mage’s spell requires INT, a cleric’s miracle requires WIL (willpower), a barbarian’s berserk rage requires STR, et cetera. Improving an ability’s domain will improve the ability.
• Type: Abilities can be magical (a spell created and cast by a trained magic-user from their own magic reserves), mundane (a technique developed and used via non-magical methods), supernatural (a spell cast from a source that is not one’s own magic reserves), and racial (an ability inherent to your character’s race). Magical abilities are the most powerful, but always require at least 1 FP to cast; magical abilities must have a domain of INT, WIL, or CHA, with INT being stronger than the other two. Mundane abilities are less powerful, but can cost 0 FP; powerful mundane abilities still cost FP and will be weaker than a magical ability. Supernatural abilities are in between magical and mundane abilities in power, and usually have some sort of cost for their use besides FP (see “Contact with supernatural beings…” in the Magic section of The World). Racial abilities do not need to have any relation to your archetype, but can only be gained on character creation.
• Cost: FP plus any other components for the ability (which do not need to be consumed), if applicable.
• Description: What the ability does and how it is used.

In general: the harder an ability is to use, the more powerful I will allow it to be. You can stat these out yourself if you’d like, but I will likely revise them.

Archetypes: Your character's "archetype" is the equivalent of a class. This is a sentence or a few sentences describing your character's general areas of skill and proficiency; this describes what abilities you can take. You can only take abilities that your character would reasonably be able to have given their skill in a field; if your archetype describes your character as a spell-slinging pyromancy with a background as a researcher, it won't be reasonable for them to learn abilities related to sword fighting unless they have a tutor and spend some time during gameplay fighting with a sword.

Race: Nonhuman races can have different minimum/maximum stat caps than normal (20) and racial abilities (which each take up an ability slot); bear in mind that racial abilities must include a downside if they are particularly powerful.

Stats: Obviously, as a stat-based game, your character has a numerical value for several different attributes describing their physical abilities. The human average for a given stat is 8, the human maximum is 20, and the maximum allowed during character creation is 15. An ability can increase an attribute’s maximum past its cap, but only if it is added to your character during character creation (as this represents significant training over a lifetime that allows them to exceed the normal maximum for their race). The stats are:

• STR: Strength. Increases damage more than any other stat and is used for skill/stat checks involving quick bursts of strength.
• DEX: Dexterity. Increases accuracy and damage, but not to the extent of Strength. Used for skill/stat checks involving precise movements.
• SPD: Speed. Higher speed makes you act sooner in a given turn than slower combatants (with some RNG). Also increases damage of very light weapons (daggers, shortswords, fists, and similar weapons). Used for skill/stat checks involved in physically moving quickly.
• END: Endurance. Increases health and lets you wear better armor as well as wield very large weapons. Used in skill/stat checks involving long, drawn-out feats of strength.
• WIL: Willpower. Grants extra FP. Affects mental perseverance and your ability to withstand attacks on the mind.
• INT: Intelligence. Abilities using INT as a domain are stronger than any other domain as well as skill checks involving knowledge.
• CHA: Charisma. Affects your ability to ability to persuade or otherwise interact with others, as well as your ability to resist being swayed by others.
• HP: Health. Derived from endurance and level; an average human has 24 HP. Describes how many hits you can take before you become incapacitated. Every level-up past level 1 adds 1d3 max HP and every point of endurance adds 3 HP.
• FP: Focus points. Derived from willpower; an average human has 4 FP. 1 FP is the average cost of a spell, although very powerful spells can cost more. Mundane abilities can cost 0 to 1 FP, rarely more. Every second point of Willpower adds 1 FP below 10 WIL, and every point after that increases it by 1. Every fourth level-up adds 1 FP.

Levels: Roughly every 10 encounters designed for your character level, you gain a level. Every even level gets you a new ability of your design, and every odd level gets you a stat point to allocate in addition to HP and FP gains as stated above. Resolving encounters in particularly unique ways or roleplaying well will cause you to level faster. Playing as a character that is overly weak in combat and succeeding in battle will also cause greater EXP gains. (I keep a private tally of level progress, since EXP is arbitrary.)

Weapons: Weapons have several components:

• Damage dice: Self-explanatory; Wrinkle uses dice notation for damage.
• Stat requirements: Weapons may require a certain amount of STR, DEX, or other stats to wield. Accuracy modifiers are based off of the DEX requirement.
• SPD Modifier: Some weapons are nimbler than others. Attacks or abilities that utilize your weapon alter your speed during turn order calculations by the SPD modifier. (That means drinking a potion as your action would use your base SPD and not your SPD modifier.)
• Scaling: Weapons gain flat damage bonuses depending on their scaling value for a given stat and your rating for that stat (think Dark Souls). Scaling values are described by letters (A, B, C, D, E) which each correspond to a table that describes the damage added per quantity of the related stat. STR has its own table with better damage values, and the other stats share a second table.
• Damage type: Mundane weapons can deal piercing, slashing, or crushing damage. Other damage types exist and are more difficult to resist; they are not set in stone yet.

Armor and Accuracy: Like in DnD, your character has an armor class (AC) numerical value describing how difficult they are to hit squarely enough to deal damage. When attacking a target, you add your ACC mod and your proficiency bonus to the result of a d20 and must beat your target's AC in order to successfully hit. (A 20 deals a critical hit, which always hits and deals your maximum damage multiplied by 1.5.)

Your accuracy modifier is determined by your DEX and your weapon's DEX requirement. Every two points of DEX above the requirement increases the ACC mod by 1. Some weapons may have increased or decreased ACC modifiers at the minimum required DEX.

Additionally, there are three levels of “resistance” that decrease damage for a given type by a % value: minor resistance (33%), resistance (50%), and major resistance (66%).

Speed modifies your AC in some armors; every 3 points of speed above 8 grants 1 AC, and every 3 points of speed below 8 subtracts 1 AC. Base AC is 8 (tentatively). Each armor also has a modifier that can reduce this bonus; the bonus can't be dropped below 0, but a very fast character in plate armor might only get 1 or 2 AC from their speed.

I’ll provide template weapons and armor if there’s interest.

Death: Your character becomes incapacitated when their HP hits 0 and cannot move or take any actions (besides wheeze some dying words, if you'd like). Immediately when downed by an attack and at the end of every following turn you roll a death saving throw; on a 2 to a 10, you gain a death counter, and on an 11 to a 19, you gain a life counter. When you roll a 1, you gain two death counters, and when you roll a 20, you revive at 1 HP. When you gain 3 life counters, you "stabilize" and remain incapacitated but are still unable to act; you do not lose your death counters. When you gain three death counters, you die.

An ally that is nearby can spend two turns to perform first aid and stabilize you. You will not make any death checks while this is happening unless your healer is interrupted.

Proper medical treatment or powerful healing magic can remove death counters. You are likely to find people in towns who will do this for a price.

Powerful priests of certain gods or necromancers can revive a dead body. Don't expect it to be cheap. You'll need to bring the body with you, and it can be difficult to perfectly revive a mangled body, so try to keep it intact.

Skill Checks: As this is die-based, every task that has a reasonable chance of failure and a reasonable consequence for failure will require you to roll to see how successfully you can complete that task. All skill checks are based on the roll of 1d20 plus modifiers from your proficiencies and stats. The degree of failure also matters in the outcome; failing by a single point may still be beneficial or at least not harmful even if you didn't do what you intended to do (e.g. failing to kick down a door may still damage it enough to make the next attempt easier). Rolling a 20 will result in a "critical success" that adds an extra +4 to the roll and will make failure always non-harmful regardless of how far you were from succeeding. There is no direct penalty from rolling a 1 aside from the bad modifier.

Proficiency: Naturally, characters will have been trained in different things and may be better at some tasks than their stats would suggest. A thief is going to be better at lockpicking than a longbowman, even if they have the same DEX stat. Unlike in DnD, there are not concrete categories of proficiency for most things aside from equipment (unless you have your character start off
There are five levels of proficiency, of which four will be relevant: unskilled (+0), novice (+2), adept (+4), and master (+6). The fifth level of proficiency, foreign (-10), is used for things your character is so unfamiliar with that they have no idea where to begin.

Proficiency grants its bonus to die rolls and, in the case of weapon proficiencies, grants its bonus to accuracy rolls (but not damage). Proficiency with magical catalysts (staves, wands, casting bare-handed, etc.) grant additional accuracy to spells with a miss or failure chance. Proficiency with armor grants a bonus to AC.

Novice proficiency can be gained simply from your backstory and your archetype; if your character has had a reasonable amount of experience at a given task or your archetype states that they are skilled in that task, then you automatically gain novice proficiency in that task. There is no limit to the number of proficiencies gained this way so long as it is reasonable. The exception to this rule is weapon proficiency, which must be granted by an ability except in the case of very simple weapons (clubs, daggers, bare-handed casting, etc.) following the same rules as acquiring higher proficiencies. Novice proficiency can also be gained if you practice the skill over the course of several character levels; you will gain it for free on a character level. Additionally, all characters are assumed to have novice proficiency in unarmed combat.

Adept and Master must be gained through abilities. If you have used a given proficiency enough (over the course of several character levels), you may spend an ability to upgrade one or more Novice proficiencies to Adept (they must be related to each other). If you gain only one proficiency this way, you may attach other minor bonuses to the ability. Adept proficiency can be gained without training using one of the three starting ability slots. Gaining Master proficiency goes through the same process as Adept (using an Adept proficiency frequently and using an ability to increase it) except it cannot be gained on character creation.
If you want to be certain that your character has a particular novice proficiency, state so in your background.

Dagger [1d4 Piercing B DEX C SPD]

• Requires 5 STR, 6 DEX
• +2 SPD, +0 ACC
• Crit mod is 2.0x instead of 1.5x
• A simple dagger.

Parrying Dagger [1d4 Piercing C DEX D SPD]

• Requires 5 STR, 8 DEX
• +2 SPD, +0 ACC
• +1 AC when not used to attack
• A simple dagger.

Boarding Axe [1d4 Slashing C STR D SPD]

• Requires 7 STR, 7 DEX
• +2 SPD, +0 ACC
• A small, lightweight axe often used on naval vessels.

Club [1d3 Bludgeoning B STR]

• Requires 5 STR, 8 DEX
• +1 SPD, +0 ACC
• A primitive club.

Shortsword [1d8 Slashing D STR C DEX D SPD]

• Requires 5 STR, 9 DEX
• +1 SPD, +0 ACC
• A plain shortsword.

Rapier [1d10 Piercing E STR B DEX E SPD]

• Requires 5 STR, 13 DEX
• +0 SPD, +2 ACC
• An elegant rapier. Difficult to use accurately.

Longsword [1d10+2 Slashing C STR C DEX]

• Requires 9 STR, 9 DEX
• +0 SPD, +1 ACC
• Can switch to 1d6 Piercing damage
• A standard, versatile longsword.

Battle Axe [1d10+2 Slashing B STR E DEX]

• Requires 11 STR, 8 DEX
• +0 SPD, +0 ACC
• A long, hardy axe.

Warhammer [1d8+2 Bludgeoning B STR E DEX]

• Requires 11 STR, 7 DEX
• -1 SPD, +0 ACC
• A moderately-sized warhammer; effective against armor.

Mace [1d6 Bludgeoning B STR]

• Requires 10 STR, 5 DEX
• -1 SPD, +0 ACC
• A mace; difficult to wield, but very easy to use.

Greatsword [2d6+3 Slashing C STR B DEX]

• Requires 12 STR, 10 DEX, 12 END
• -1 SPD, +0 ACC
• Can switch to 1d10 Piercing damage
• Two-handed
• A greatsword. Notoriously difficult to use.

Greataxe [1d12+2 Slashing A STR]

• Requires 13 STR, 7 DEX, 13 END
• -2 SPD, -1 ACC
• Two-handed
• A monstrously-strong, cumbersome axe. Highly effective against unarmored targets.

Maul [2d6+4 Slashing B STR E DEX]

• Requires 14 STR, 6 DEX, 13 END
• -3 SPD, -1 ACC
• Two-handed
• An unremarkable—if heavy—two-handed steel warhammer.

Spear [1d8 Piercing C STR C DEX]

• Requires 10 STR, 10 DEX
• -1 SPD, +0 ACC
• +2 AC versus weapons smaller than a two-hander or a polearm
• A long spear; good for keeping shorter weapons at bay.

Halberd [2d6+1 Slashing B STR D DEX]

• Requires 12 STR, 10 DEX
• -2 SPD, +0 ACC
• +2 AC versus weapons smaller than a two-hander or a polearm
• Two-handed
• A long halberd; strong and protective.

Quarterstaff [1d3 Bludgeoning A STR C DEX]

• Requires 10 STR, 10 DEX
• +1 SPD, +0 ACC
• +1 AC
• Two-handed
• A staff-like length of wood. Alarmingly deadly, for what it is.

Shortbow [4d2 Slashing A DEX]

• Requires 6 STR, 9 DEX
• +2 SPD, -1 ACC
• Fires arrows
• Two-handed
• A short, easily-drawn bow.

Longbow [5d3 Piercing D STR B DEX]

• Requires 9 STR, 12 DEX
• -1 SPD, +1 ACC
• Fires arrows
• Two-handed
• A powerful wooden longbow.

Light Crossbow [6d2 Piercing E DEX]

• Requires 10 STR, 6 DEX
• -2 SPD, +0 ACC
• Fires bolts
• Reloading takes one action
• Two-handed
• A lightweight crossbow used by infantrymen.

Heavy Crossbow [10d2 Piercing E DEX]

• Requires 14 STR, 12 END, 8 DEX
• -4 SPD, +0 ACC
• Fires bolts
• Reloading takes one action
• Two-handed
• A heavy crossbow for use in sieges.

Flintlock Pistol [18 Bludgeoning E SPD]

• Requires 14 DEX
• +1 SPD, +3 ACC
• Fires musket balls and gunpowder
• Reloading takes two actions
• A primitive gun; pierces most armor.

Iron Arrow [1d2 Piercing]

• Ammunition (Arrow)
• Damage type overridden by ranged weapon
• A bog-standard arrow.

Iron Bolt [1d2 Piercing]

• Ammunition (Bolt)
• Damage type overridden by ranged weapon
• Crossbow ammunition.

Musket Ball [Not Offensive]

• Ammunition (Musket Ball)
• A small metal ball used in conjunction with black powder in firearms.

Wand [Not Offensive]

• Requires 10 DEX, 10 INT
• +2 SPD, -1 ACC
• Viable Catalyst
• A nimble wooden wand that offers faster spellcasting.

Staff [1d3 Bludgeoning C STR E DEX D INT]

• Requires 8 STR DEX, 8 DEX, 10 INT
• -1 SPD, +3 ACC
• Viable Catalyst
• An accurate magical staff.

Your chararacter has four equip regions: head, hands, feet, and body (arms+torso+legs). A given piece of armor may occupy one or more of these regions. Note that this only contains things your fresh adventurer could reasonably afford (so, not platemail) and doesn’t contain things that have minimal benefit and are too weak to provide AC (leather caps, etc.).
Since there’s overlap with your character appearance here, this is intentionally pretty bare; just try to match stats, slots, and material composition roughly with what’s here.
Leather Armor [+1 AC, Body]

• Hardened leather armor. Not particularly protective, but it doesn’t restrict movement.

Leather Gloves [+0 AC, Hands]

• +1 ACC to melee attacks
• Leather gloves. Helps with gripping a weapon in the heat of combat.

Fur Armor [+2 AC, Body, Feet]

• Minor cold resist
• -1 AC from SPD
• Thick fur armor and boots that keep cold at bay.

Scalemail [+3 AC, Body]

• -1 AC from SPD
• Bronze scales affixed to leather armor.

Scale Padding [+1 AC, Hands, Feet]

• Leather bracers and boots covered in bronze scales.

Chainmail [+4 AC, Body]

• -3 AC from SPD
• Stealth penalty
• Minor slashing resist
• An expensive chainmail hauberk.

Chainmail Coif [+1 AC, Head]

• -1 AC from SPD
• A hood made from chainmail.

Steel Cap [+2 AC, Head]

• -1 AC from SPD
• An open-faced sallet made from tempered steel.

Steel Gauntlets [+1 AC, Hands]

• -1 AC from SPD
• Steel hand protection.

Steel Boots [+1 AC, Feet]

• -1 AC from SPD
• Steel hand protection.

For Stats besides Strength:

E:
0-13: +0
14-18: +1
19-23: +2

D:
0-12: +0
13-16: +1
17-20: +2
21-24: +3

C:
0-10: +0
11-13: +1
14-16: +2
17-19: +3
20-22: +4

B:
0-9: +0
10-11: +1
12-13: +2
14-15: +3
16-17: +4
18-19: +5
20-21: +6

A:
0-9: +0
10:+1
11-12: +2
13:+3
14-15: +4
16:+5
17-18: +6
19:+7
20-21: +8
For Strength:

E:
00-12: +0
13-16: +1
17-20: +2
21-24: +3

D:
0-11: +0
12-14: +1
15-17: +2
18-20: +3
21-23: +4

C:
0-9: +0
10-11: +1
12-13: +2
14-15: +3
16-17: +4
18-19: +5
20-21: +6

B:
0-9:+0
10:+1
11-12:+2
13:+3
14-15:+4
16: +5
17-18:+6
19: +7
20-21: +8

A:
0-9:+0
10:+1
11: +2
12-13:+3
14:+4
15:+5
16-17:+6
18:+7
19:+8
20-21: +9