QUICK START GUIDE

QUICK START GUIDE

DICE
Z-LAND only uses one type of dice, called a ten sided dice, or a d10. During
Character Generation, you will be asked to roll a d10 and d5 (roll a d10 and
10 divide the number by two) to create your character, but to actually play the
game itself you will need two d10s to create a d100.

A d100 is simply two d10s, where you have chosen one d10 to be the
“ones” and the other d10 to be the “tens”. So if you roll both d10s and
one says “3” and the other says “8”, you know that you have rolled 38. 3 8
Some d10s have two digits on them, to make it easier to distinguish
the “tens” dice.
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If you don’t have one of these special d10s, you can get two d10s of
different colours. Then just make sure you always use the same colour for
either the “ones” or the “tens”. Otherwise, simply roll a d10 twice, rolling
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the “tens” first and the “ones” second.

SKILLS
What your character can and can’t do, and how good they are at what they do, are
represented in Z-LAND by 20 Skills. These 20 Skills embody everything there is about your
character, from how smart they are, to how fast they are, to how much money they have, to
so much more.

All Skills can range from 0 to 100, but never above or below that. During Character Generation
your character’s Skills will start at Level 30 and you get the chance to add a bunch of Levels to
your Skills by rolling some d10s and d5s.

Skills are broadly split into two groups: Physical Skills and Non-Physical Skills. Physical Skills are
all about what your character can physically do with their body, like running, shooting, fighting
and sneaking. Non-Physical Skills are the mental and social Skills and show
how good your character is at seeing, talking, learning, etc.

Once you get a Skill above Level 50, you will have the chance to create a
Specialisation inside a Skill. Specialisations are Skills you create and name
yourself and are more focused versions of normal Skills. So you can create
a Specialisation called “Sword-fighting” out of the Fight Skill, or one called
“Tracking” out of the Investigation Skill. Specialisations level up twice as fast
as normal Skills, so get them quickly.

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Two Skills have special abilities: Constitution and Luck.
Constitution limits how many Wounds you have and
Luck limits how many Sigils you have. Sigils help with Skill
Checks, and Wounds show how tough your character is.
For both, take the first digit of the Skill Level and that is
how many Wounds or Sigils you have. So if you have Luck
at Level 35, you have 3 Sigils. If it was at 59, you would
have 5 Sigils. It works the same for Constitution and
Wounds.

SKILL CHECKS
Just because you want your character to do something in Z-LAND, doesn’t mean they are
always successful at it. If there is a chance that it could fail, or that failing could produce good
drama, your game master may tell you to do a Skill Check.

All this means is that you roll a d100 and try and get at or below your
Skill Level. If you do, your character has succeeded, but if you roll a
number higher than your Skill Level then your character failed. This
is the basis for all Skill Checks in the game, so once you’ve mastered
this, you’re ready to go.

Since nothing in life is as easy or hard as we think it is,

your game master will add Difficulty Modifiers to your Skill
Check. Difficulty Modifiers add or subtract amounts from
your Skill Level, making it easier or harder to pass a Skill
Check. If your character has a Skill Level of 50 and your
game master added a Difficulty Modifier of -20, then you
now have to get at or lower than 30 to pass the Skill Check.

Sometimes (like during Combat) your character will face off

directly against another character. When this happens, you will
do an Opposed Skill Check. All this means is that you and the
player (or game master) controlling the other character both
roll a normal Skill Check (with any Modifiers) and see who got
the highest number while still being underneath their Skill Level.
Think of it like Blackjack. You want to get as high a number as
possible while staying at or under the target number: your Skill
Level in Z-LAND. Whoever gets the highest number under their
Skill Level wins the Opposed Skill Check.

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SIGILS
Sigils are points that you can use to make Skill Checks easier. Each time your game master asks
you to roll a Skill Check, you can use a Sigil to give the Skill Check a bonus +25 Modifier (on
top of whatever Difficulty Modifiers your game master has already given you). You can only do
this once per Skill Check.

If you failed a Skill Check, or you just didn’t like the result of it, you
can also spend a Sigil to re-roll that Skill Check, giving you a second
chance. You can also only do this once per Skill Check and you must
accept the result of the second roll.

You start each new gaming session with a number of Sigils equal to the
first digit of your character’s Luck Skill Level (called your Sigil Threshold).
You can get more Sigils during each session through GM Intrusions, which
means your game master will make your character’s life harder but will
give you a Sigil to make up for it.

It doesn’t matter how many, or few, Sigils you have at the end of the session, because at the
next session you will again have only as many Sigils are your Sigil Threshold.

COMBAT
When it comes to Combat, there are as many ways to fight as you can imagine. You don’t
just have to limit yourself to the Fight or Shoot Skill Checks, and there are all sorts of actions
that you can do in Combat such as grappling, throwing, choking, disarming and they all use
different Skills.

The order in which each character takes their turn is decided on by the game master, and
each turn is around 5 seconds of your character’s life, so whatever you want to fit within 5
seconds can be done in a turn, but remember that if there is a chance to fail, you may have to
do a Skill Check.

Skill Checks in Combat will nearly always work the same as Opposed Skill Checks: your
character and their opponent both roll normal Skill Checks (with any Modifiers) and see who
got the highest number while still being under their Skill Level.

The main difference is that in Combat, the attacker rolls first and only if they succeed on their
roll, then the defender rolls. If the attacker fails their roll, then their character missed and the
defender doesn’t have to roll. If the defender rolled higher under their Skill Level than the

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attacker, then the attack missed as well, but if the
attacker rolled higher under their Skill Level than the
defender, than the attack hit and could do damage.

You can easily work out what the damage of an

attack is by taking the number that the attacker
rolled (if under their Skill Level), and then
subtracting the number that the defender rolled (if
under their Skill Level). This is the damage. If the
defender rolled over and above their Skill Level,
then add that number to the attacker’s number.

WOUNDS
Wounds are how damage is handled in Z-LAND. Once a character has taken damage, your
game master will consult the Wound Severity table to see just how serious the wound is. This
can range anywhere from a Minor Wound like a scratch, to a Significant Wound like a broken
bone, to a very serious Grievous Wound like a punctured eye.

Your character has 6 Hit Locations. To see which body part is wounded,
all you need to do is reverse the numbers of the roll that caused the
wound. So if the attacker rolled a 64, it becomes a 46. Your game
master then will check the Hit Locations table in the rulebook to see
which limb received the Wound.

Your game master will describe what the wound looks like (if it is a cut or a bruise, for
example), but in game terms all Significant Wounds give a character a -10 Modifier to any Skill
Check using that limb, and Grievous Wounds give a character a -15 Modifier to any Skill Check
using that limb. Minor Wounds give no Modifiers.

A Minor Wound is gone after the

encounter where the character received
it; and a Significant Wound will only
disappear after the entire gaming session
is over and only if the wound was treated.
However, the penalties from a Grievous
Wound won’t go away until the wound
has healed to a degree that you can use
it again. This can take from 1-2 weeks in
game to up to 12 whole weeks.

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SURVIVAL
In Z-LAND your character will need to eat, drink, and sleep in order to stay alive and one step
ahead of everyone else. If you don’t do these things, then you will get penalties to your Skills,
to show what hunger, thirst and lack of sleep does to the human body.

Instead of counting calories and glasses of water, Z-LAND uses Food Units and Water Units. 1
Food Unit is enough food for a meal, and 1 Water Unit is enough liquid to keep you going for
⅓ of a day. The exact amount of food and liquids that make up a Food Unit and Water Unit is
up to your GM.

Each day is divided into 3 Blocks. For every Block your character needs to
eat 1 Food Unit and drink 1 Water Unit to avoid getting penalties. Your
character also needs to sleep around 1 Block every day, or between 2-3
hours per Block to stay alert.

For every Block that you don’t eat, drink or have enough sleep,
your GM can ask you to roll a Constitution Skill Check. If you pass
the Check, nothing happens, but if you fail the Check then you
will get penalties. The longer you stay hungry, thirsty, or sleepy,
the harder the Constitution Skill Checks will become, even if you
passed the earlier ones.

For every Hunger Check you fail, you will get -1 to all Physical Skills
and -2 to all Non-Physical Skills. For every Thirst Check you fail, you
will get -2 to all Physical Skills and -5 to all Non-Physical Skills. For
every Sleep Check you fail, you will get -3 to all Skills.

If your Constitution or Will Skill Levels ever hits 0 then you

will get Grievous Wound. You’ll also fall unconscious until you
get some penalties removed. Sleep penalties are removed
automatically if you are unconscious for long enough, but
you’ll need help for the Hunger and Thirst penalties or you
will continue to get them. If your Constitution or Will Skill
Levels ever reach half their normal Levels below 0 then your
character is dead.

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LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Dugdale-Wright.

HEAD DEVELOPER: Izak Tait.
CO-DEVELOPER: Scott Andrews.
CONSULTANT: Christopher Brady

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