5 Leagues character and warband statistics, plus basic rules

I probably won’t get completely into the weeds as far as the rules of 5 Leagues go, however the next few posts will cover a general rules overview, the base stats of our warband members,  and the mechanical region generation. At least enough to make following subsequent reports vaguely easier(I hope). I may or may not, get into some specifics in the future, as we get into the individually played out turns. 

After that I'll round it out with a narrative summary before starting the ongoing chronicle.

Anyway, in this post I'll begin with a general summary of some basic stats for warband members and rules.

Warband Statistics

Agility: determines when the character acts during the round. At the start of each round of a battle a number of d6 are rolled equal to warband members on the field before assigning individual dice to the different characters. Any character assigned a die equal or below their agility will act in the quick action phase. The remaining warband members will act in the slow phase, after the Enemy Action Phase.

Speed: this has two values, the first is the character’s base movement (in inches on the tabletop). The second is the additional distance that can be gained by dashing

Combat Skill: the character’s fighting ability. Added to a D6 roll

Toughness: the character’s resilience to harm. When hit in combat, rolling greater than Toughness indicates an incapacitating injury.

Characters can also accumulate Will and Luck points. Will can be spent help with re-rolls, gain an additional move and other “clutch moment” acts. Luck can spent to avoid a gruesome death in the Borderlands, but are a one use spend. Another Ability, used by Mystic characters (which our warband does not currently contain) is Casting, which is used in.. you guessed it… spell casting. 

On top of this characters can also possess skills that help with various proficiency tests during their adventures, such as Leadership skill helping with any future recruiting to the warband, or the Path-wise skill helping navigate around travel obstacles.

The warband as a whole can also have Story Points, which are used to smooth over the vagaries of the dice gods with re-rolls, or to improve the narrative. They can also accumulate Adventure Points which can be spent to help in various campaign milestones, from reducing any enemy threat in the region, to attempting to bolster and upgrade a settlement.

The Basics of Combat

Melee combat is a series of up to three exchanges, using an opposed D6 roll, with both combatants adding their Combat Skill. 

Assuming the attacker wins, with a higher score, then they inflict a hit on the opponent.

If the defender has the higher score, they win and become the attacker in the next exchange.

On a draw, the defender retreats 1" from the combat and the melee ends.

Any hits are resolved by first rolling to Overcome Armour, assuming their target has any, then if that is successful they roll to Overcome Toughness.

Missile attacks are made against a fixed number, the shooter only adding their Combat Skill if they have remained stationary that round. They then follow the procedure of rolling versus the targets armour and toughness.

Certain weapons (and other effects) can modify these rolls. For example a warband member wielding a bastard sword gets +1 on their roll to overcome an opponents toughness. Foes encountered by the warband may have their own bonuses to overcoming our heroes armour or toughness as part of their stat entry.

There are plenty of other rules, but that should at least give you an overview of the mechanics for combat resolution if you are completely unfamiliar with the game.