Sil-G

D**MGURLS

Fantasy GURLS: Enneazatton

Sil-G

Table of Contents

Introduction

Sil-G is a tabletop adaptation of the video game Sil and its fork Sil-Q. Sil has a FANTASTIC manual, and I'll be using exerpts from it throughout the rulebook.

Sil is a role-playing game with a strong emphasis on discovery and tactical combat. It has a simple but rich combat system which allows for a great variety of choice: should you wear heavy armour that makes you easier to hit but reduces the damage you take? should you wield heavier weapons to overcome your opponents’ armour, or wield lighter weapons for more accuracy and a greater chance of critical hits? It depends on the situation and the type of character you become. You will also have the chance to retreat back into shadowy corridors to take the enemy one by one, or to stealthily creep up to your opponent and take him unawares.

It is also one of very few games that stays true to the writings of Tolkien. Carefully researched, it dispenses with many generic fantasy tropes and reveals a different world. There are no wizards or priests, no plate mail or magical scrolls. Instead, it is the Norse Saga inspired world that Tolkien imagined, with warriors clad in shining mail, singing songs of rage or sorrow as they slay. The magic of the world is subtle yet powerful: there are songs of fear and of binding, rather than spells of fireball and teleportation.

Race and House

The first choice in creating a character is to choose your race. Sil is unusual among roleplaying games in that the races are intentionally not balanced against one another. Instead, they act like a difficulty level. Playing one of the Noldor will produce the easiest game, and is recommended for first time players. Playing as one of the Naugrim or Sindar is a little harder but can lead to interesting variations in playing style, and playing as one of the Edain is noticeably more difficult, and should be considered a challenge mode. On the other hand, within each race, the Houses are considered as approximately equal in power level.

Each race and house gives you various modifiers to your statistics (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Grace), which are added as a bonus or penalty to the numbers you choose for your character. You can see these in the character creation screen. You will also have an affinity or penalty for one or more skills, and may have a proficiency for some types of weapon.

Affinities

• If you have an affinity with a skill, you get:
• a bonus of 1 to your skill total
• all abilities linked to that skill are 500 experience points cheaper
  • in particular your first ability is free!

Skill Mastery

• Mastery is like a double affinity for a single skill
• you get a bonus of 2 to your skill total
• all abilities linked to that skill are 1000 experience points cheaper
• (except your first one, which is free rather than giving you experience!)

Penalty

• Penalty is the opposite of an affinity
• You get a penalty of 1 to your skill total
• All abilities linked to that skill are 500 experience points more expensive.

Weapon proficiency

• All elves (Noldor and Sindar) have a blade proficiency
• This gives them a bonus of 1 to their melee so long as they are using a blade (sword or dagger).
• Dwarves (Naugrim) have an axe proficiency
• This gives them a bonus of 1 to their melee so long as they are using an axe.

Noldor - The Deep Elves

Base Stats: Str 0, Dex 1, Con 2, Gra 2
Bow Proficiency
Song Affinity
Minimum Age:20 Maximum Age: 4865
Height 78 inches +- 3
Weight 150 lbs +- 8
The Noldor are known as the 'Deep-elves', for they are the most learned and inventive of the elven kindreds. They saw the light of the Two Trees in Valinor and gained much in lore and skill. They are tall and lithe, yet so strong of spirit that they can endure vast hardship. Their hair is mostly dark and their eyes grey.

The House of Feanor

Stat Bonus: Dex +1
Smithing Affinity
Feanor was the greatest of the Noldor, though proud and unyielding. He created the Silmarils which Morgoth later stole, and he led his house across the sea to Beleriand in pursuit. Those of Feanor's house are fiery in temper, but capable of great works of beauty.

The House of Fingolfin

Stat Bonus: Con +1
Will Affinity
Fingolfin led his house into Beleriand to protect its peoples from the shadow of Morgoth. Betrayed by the Feanorians, they had to come through the icy wastes of the north. Their people are the most hardy and valiant, most feared by the orcs and hated by Morgoth.

The House of Finarfin

Stat Bonus: +1 Con
Perception Affinity
Finarfin himself did not come to Beleriand, but many of his house made the journey under Fingolfin's banner. They are the fairest and wisest of the Noldor. All have golden hair as a mark of their Vanyarin ancestry.

Sindar - The Grey Elves

Base Stats: Str -1, Dex 1, Con 2, Gra 1
Bow Proficiency
Song Affinity
Minimum Age:20 Maximum Age: 4865
Height 76 inches +- 3
Weight 148 lbs +- 8
The Sindar are the 'Grey-elves' who never saw the blessed light of the Two Trees, but who found an echo of it in their queen, Melian the Maiar. They are less learned and powerful than the Noldor, but have fair voices and are gifted in song.

The House of Doriath

Stat Bonus: +1 Gra
Song Mastery
Most Sindar dwell in the forests of Doriath. Thingol is their king, and rules from Menegroth with Melian at his side. Her power hides Doriath from the servants of Morgoth, allowing the Sindar to hunt and feast as in the days before his shadow grew.

Those of the Falas

Stat Bonus: +1 Dex
Archery Affinity
When Thingol met with Melian under the wheeling stars, many of his folk despaired of finding him again and journeyed to the shore, the Falas, to set sail to Valinor. Some tarried there and dwelt in the havens on the edge of Middle-Earth with their lord, Cirdan, the shipbuilder.

Naugrim - The Dwarves

Base Stats: Str 0, Dex -1, Con 3, Gra 1
Axe Proficiency
Archery Penalty
Smithing Affinity
Minimum Age:35 Maximum Age: 180
Height 54 inches +- 2
Weight 155 lbs +- 10
The dwarves are stone-hard and stubborn, fast in friendship and in enmity. They live long, far beyond the span of Men but not for ever. They are short in stature, deep-breasted and stout in the leg, and their beards are long. They were named the 'Naugrim' by the Sindar, meaning 'the stunted people'.

The House of Nogrod

Stat Bonus: +1 Dex
Smithing Mastery
Nogrod, the 'Hollowbold', is a dwarven stronghold beneath the Blue Mountains. The forges burn brightly in its deep mansions and the smiths of Nogrod are matchless in all Beleriand.

The House of Belegost

Stat Bonus: +1 Str
Will Affinity
Belegost, the 'Great Fortress', is a dwarven citadel in the northern ranges of the Blue Mountains. Its stout warriors are legendary for their strength and for the fearsome iron masks they wear to battle.

Edain - The Mortal Men of the First Age

Base Stats: Str 0, Dex 0, Con 0, Gra 0
Minimum Age:15 Maximum Age: 45
Height 70 inches +- 4
Weight 150 lbs +- 12
The Edain are the Men of Beleriand. They gained much from dealings with the Noldor, and grew more long lived than their kin beyond the mountains. However, compared to the elves they were more frail, and more easily slain by weapon or mischance. The Edain dwell in the north of Beleriand and help the Noldor to contain Morgoth's power.

The House of Beor

Stat Bonus: +1 Con
Evasion Affinity
Those of Beor's house are steadfast in endurance of hardship and sorrow, slow to tears and to laughter; their fortitude needs no hope to sustain it. For the most part they have brown hair with brown or grey eyes.

The People of Haleth

Stat Bonus: +1 Dex
Stealth Affinity
The people of Haleth are not eager for lore, and use few words; for they do not love great concourse of men, and many among them delight in solitude, wandering free in the greenwoods. For the most part they are small in stature, with dark hair and dark eyes.

House of Hador

Stat Bonus: +1 Str
Melee Affinity
Those of Hador's house are quick to wrath and laughter, fierce in battle, generous to friend and foe, swift in resolve, fast in loyalty and joyous in heart. For the most part they are tall, with flaxen or golden hair, blue-grey eyes and fair skin.

Stats

You have 13 points to spend between your four stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Grace). The costs increase as the triangular numbers: 1, 3, 6, 10.

Strength

• Increases the damage you do in combat.
• But effect is limited by the weapon weight (see the section on Combat)
• Increases your range with bows (as it is based on the weapon damage)
• Increases your carrying capacity by 20% per point of Strength
• Allows you to throw things 20% further per point of Strength
• Allows you to wield very heavy weapons without penalty
• Helps you resist being disarmed in combat
• Helps you break free of webs
• Helps you bash down locked doors

Dexterity

• Gives a bonus to the first four skills:
• Melee
• Archery
• Evasion
• Stealth
• Helps you avoid needle traps in chests

Constitution

• Increases your health points by 20% per point of Con

Grace

• Gives a bonus to the last four skills:
• Perception
• Will
• Smithing
• Song
• Increases your voice points by 20% per point of Grace

Experience

Sil has neither classes nor levels, but it is far from the case that all characters of a given race are the same. As you adventure, you will accrue experience points, which you can spend to improve your prowess. There is a lot of flexibility in how you spend your experience, and this is a major part of the game.

Sources of Experience

All characters begin the game with 5,000 experience points to allocate. There are four sources of further experience in the game: encountering monsters; killing monsters; descending deeper into the Iron Hells; identifying objects.

Encountering monsters

• You gain experience for encountering each individual enemy the first time you see it (or if you kill it without ever seeing it).
• For the first monster of a given type you encounter, you get d/5 experience points, where d is the depth (in feet) at which it is normally met. For subsequent encounters with monsters of the same type, the amount that you get decays: when you meet the second one you will only received ½ this amount of experience, then ⅓, then ¼…

Killing monsters

• For the first monster of a given type you kill, you get d/5 experience points, where d is the depth (in feet) at which it is normally met. The experience gained for killing additional monsters decays in exactly the same way as for encounters.
• Thus there is the same amount of experience available for killing monsters as for encountering them. All characters are likely to get more experience from encounters than from kills, and for some this may be much more.

Descending

• The first time you reach a depth of d feet (or deeper), you are awarded d experience points.

Identification

• Whenever your character identifies a new type of potion, herb, ring, amulet, horn, stave or special item, you are awarded 100 experience points.
• In the halls of Angband one may find ancient or renowned items of great power, which we collectively refer to as artefacts. Each time you identify an artefact, you are awarded 200 experience points.

Note that there are several ways to deal with enemies apart from killing them: you may, for instance, sneak past them, make them flee before you, or run yourself. Characters who kill few enemies may thus get a little less experience than those who do, but may also have a higher chance of survival (combat is dangerous!).

Spending Experience points

Your character may use the lessons learned to train any of the eight skills detailed below. Your first point in a skill will cost 100 experience, your second 200, your third 300, and so on.

You may also learn various unique abilities. Each ability is linked to a skill, and may have requirements before you are able to learn it. For each skill, the first linked ability costs 500 experience points, the second costs 1000, the third costs 1500, and so on.

Skills

The main mechanic in Sil is the skill check. This involves rolling 1d10 and adding the appropriate skill score and comparing this to 1d10 plus the difficulty level. The first total needs to be higher than the second in order to succeed. Skill checks are used in and out of combat, though if any of the first three skills (melee, archery, evasion), then d20s are used instead of d10s. The difficulty for a skill check is often based on an adversary’s skill. For example, when you try to hit an opponent in melee, your melee skill is opposed to their evasion skill, and when you try to sneak past a monster, your stealth skill is opposed to their perception.

Melee

• Helps you hit an opponent in hand-to-hand combat.
• difficulty = opponent’s evasion roll
• You can also get critical hits (if you succeed by enough).
• See Combat section for full details.
• Helps you hit an opponent with thrown weapons.
• Helps you prise a Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown.
• difficulty = 0 (but you need to do a lot of damage!)

Archery

• Helps you hit an opponent in ranged combat.
• difficulty = half opponent’s evasion roll
• You can also get critical hits (if you succeed by enough).
• See Combat section for full details.

Evasion

• Helps you avoid being hit in combat.
• difficulty = opponent’s melee or archery roll
• You can also suffer critical hits (if they succeed by enough).
• See Combat section for full details.
• Helps you climb out of pits
• difficulty = (15 for normal pits, 20 for spiked pits)
• Helps you avoid falling debris
• difficulty = 20
• Helps you avoid getting hit by dart traps.
• difficulty = 15

Stealth

• Helps you avoid being noticed by opponents.
• See Stealth section for full details
• Rolled by the GM
• Provides a bonus to melee against unwary or sleeping opponents if you have the ‘assassination’ ability.
• There is a penalty of –1 to Stealth for each 10 lb of armour worn
• Stealth mode gives +5 to Stealth, but –1 to speed.
• You can declare you are entering or leaving stealth mode at the beginning of your turn.

Perception

• Helps you notice traps and secret doors.
• difficulty = base of half the dungeon level
• +10 for floor traps and secret doors
• +15 for chest traps
• +5 if you cannot see properly
• +5 if confused
• +2 for each square of distance from you (beyond the first)
• –5 if you search(adjacent squares only)
• Rolled by the GM
• Helps you disarm traps and pick locks.
• difficulty = base from 1 to 7 depending on the trap or lock
• +5 if it is a lock
• +5 if you cannot see properly
• +5 if confused
• You trigger a trap if you fail to disarm it by 3 or more
• Helps you detect ‘invisible’ opponents.
• difficulty = opponent’s will + 2 per square of distance between you
• Helps you avoid stepping on a caltrop trap.
• difficulty = 10
• Provides various benefits when using perception-based abilities (see the individual ability listings)

Will

• Helps you resist many special effects: confusion, stunning, fear, blindness, entrancement, slowing, hallucination, hunger, stat draining, and forgetting.
• difficulty = opponent’s will (if an opponent caused the threat)
• difficulty = 10 (if there is no opponent)
• Rolled by the GM
• Helps you successfully use staves and horns.
• difficulty = half the object level
• +5 if confused
• Increases the effectiveness of many staves and horns.
• Provides various benefits when using will-based abilities (see the individual ability listings)

Smithing

• Lets you make more powerful items at forges.
• See Abilities section and the tutorial for more details.
• The only skill that doesn’t use rolls.

Song

• Increases the power of various songs that you can sing.
• See the Abilities section for full details.

Abilities

Alchemy

Prerequisites: Perception 5

Lets you determine the purpose of all herbs and potions you encounter, as well as staves and horns. You still gain the experience for identification only when you actually encounter an item of a type you had not seen before.

Ambush

Prerequisites: Archery 6

Grants an additional critical damage die whenever you hit an unwary or sleeping monster with an arrow.

Armoursmith

Prerequisites: Smithing 3

Allows you to create armour when at a forge.

Artifice

Prerequisites: Smithing 7, Jeweller or Enchantment

Allows you to create your own custom artefacts with many different properties.
Note that these require three uses of a forge each.

Assassination

Prerequisites: Stealth 4

Gives you a melee bonus equal to your stealth score when you attack unwary or sleeping opponents.
Note that you don’t get the melee bonus if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.
The melee bonus is only gained if this is a regular, flanking, or controlled retreat attack.
The bonus is not applied if you are doing a charge attack.

Bane

Prerequisites: Perception 6

You receive a bonus to all skill rolls against a selected broad category of enemy.
The categories are: Orc, Wolf, Spider, Troll, Wraith, Rauko, Serpent, Dragon.
You need to have killed 4 enemies from the category to select it.
When you reach 2 n kills of your chosen enemy, the bonus increases to +n.

Blocking

Prerequisites: Evasion 3

Doubles the number of dice of protection granted by your shield against ranged attacks, and also against melee attacks on any turn where you wait.

Channeling

Prerequisites: Will 2

You automatically recognise all staves and horns and can use them twice as efficiently.
Horns have halved voice costs.
Using staffs uses half a charge.

Charge

Prerequisites: Melee 5

If you attack an opponent after having just moved towards that opponent (so that your move and attack are in the same direction or at most 45° apart), then your attack is calculated as if you had 3 more points of strength and dexterity.
The damage bonus is only gained if this is a regular, flanking, or controlled retreat attack.

Concentration

Prerequisites: Perception 4

Gives you a +1 bonus to attack for each consecutive round spent attacking a particular enemy (to a maximum of half your perception).
Spending a turn waiting/blocking doesn’t break concentration.

Consitution(Will)

Prerequisites: Will 12

You gain a point of Constitution.

Controlled Retreat

Prerequisites: Evasion 11, Dodging OR Blocking

Allows you to attack while moving if you move from a square adjacent to it to a square not adjacent to it, but only if you didn’t move on the previous round.
You cannot get a flanking attack and a controlled retreat attack on the same turn, controlled retreat simply adds to the eligible opponents.
Only works on one opponent each time.
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.

Crippling Shot

Prerequisites: Archery 8, Puncture OR Ambush

If you score a critical hit using archery (and do at least 1 point of net damage), your opponent has to make a Will check against the output of the following calculation:
4 + (2 * (level of critical hit))
If they fail, they become slowed for one round for each level of the critical hit.

Critical Resistance

Prerequisites: Will 9, Hardness

Increases the amount by which an enemy must successfully hit you in order to score a critical hit (by 1 for every 5 points of Will).

Crowd Fighting

Prerequisites: Evasion 5

Halves the bonus to melee that opponents get for surrounding you.

Cruel Blow

Prerequisites: Stealth 5, Assassination

If you score a critical hit in melee (and do at least 1 point of net damage), your opponent has to make a Will check against the output of the following calculation:
4 + (2 * (level of critical hit))
If they fail, they become confused with pain for one round for each level of the critical hit.

Curse Breaking

Prerequisites: Will 4

Allows you to remove cursed equipment and thereby break the curse.

Deadly Hail

Prerequisites: Archery 9, Rout OR Puncture

When shooting an enemy immediately after killing another enemy with an arrow, you roll twice as many damage dice as you normally would.
All damage dice are doubled, with no regard to their origin – slay or poison dice, critical dice, weapon dice all count.
This is more than the damage two arrows would do, as the enemy will only get one armour roll against one arrow, whereas they would get to roll armour twice against two arrows.

Dexterity(Archery)

Prerequisites: Archery 10

You gain a point of Dexterity.

Dexterity(Evasion)

Prerequisites: Evasion 20

You gain a point of Dexterity.

Dexterity(Stealth)

Prerequisites: Stealth 11, Disguise OR Assassination

You gain a point of Dexterity.

Disguise

Prerequisites: Stealth 3

Halves any bonuses that awake but unwary monsters have to notice you due to you being in their line of sight.

Dodging

Prerequisites: Evasion 2

Gives you a bonus of +3 to evasion if you moved last turn.

Enchantment

Prerequisites: Smithing 5

Allows you to create {special} items at a forge and identify enchanted items you encounter.

Exchange places

Prerequisites: Stealth 6, Disguise OR Crowd Fighting

You may swap places with an adjacent enemy.
Alert enemies get a free attack on you unless they are confused or mindless.
Cannot be used when you cannot see the enemy, or you are in a web or pit.

Expertise

Prerequisites: Smithing 6

Reduces the time taken to forge an item by half.
Negates all experience and stat costs on items you create.

Finesse

Prerequisites: Melee 2

Lowers the amount needed to score each level of critical hit by 2.
e.g. need to hit by 5 + weapon-weight instead of 7 + weapon-weight.

Flanking

Prerequisites: Evasion 8

Gives you a free attack on an opponent if you move between two squares which are both adjacent to it.
You cannot get a flanking attack and a controlled retreat attack on the same turn, flanking simply adds to the eligible opponents.
Only works on one opponent each time and gives preference to the one that is targeted (if any).
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.

Fletchery

Prerequisites: Archery 3

You can now craft arrows into +3 arrows.
Each +3 arrow takes one turn to craft. Crafting all the arrows in a stack will take as many turns as arrows.
You can be interrupted while crafting.

Focused Attack

Prerequisites: Perception 2

Gives you a bonus equal to half your Perception score to your attacks if you waited on the previous turn.
Only works for the first attack of the round.

Follow-Through

Prerequisites: Melee 6, Power OR Finesse

If you kill an opponent, you get a free ‘follow-through’ attack on another opponent adjacent to you.
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.
The follow-up attack only applies if the killing blow was a regular, impale, flanking, controlled retreat, whirlwind or follow-through attack (so it can be chained).

Forewarned

Prerequisites: Perception 7

You have full knowledge of all types of enemy that you might encounter and can tell if an item is cursed.
If your base Perception exceeds your Evasion, you gain a bonus to your Evasion of one-third your Perception score.

Grace(Perception)

Prerequisites: Perception 10

You gain a point of Grace.

Grace(Smithing)

Prerequisites: Smithing 10

You gain a point of Grace.

Grace(Song)

Prerequisites: Song 12

You gain a point of Grace.

Hardiness

Prerequisites: Will 6

Gives you [1dX] extra protection, where X = Will / 6
This protection works against all damage types, like a ring of protection.

Heavy Armor Use

Prerequisites: Evasion 9, Blocking OR Crowd-Fighting

Gives you [1dX] extra protection, where X = total armour weight / 15 lbs

Impale

Prerequisites: Melee 7, Power OR Polearm Mastery

Allows you to attack up to two enemies in a row provided you are wielding a polearm or greatsword. Both enemies are attacked with an impale attack.
Only applies if the attack was a regular, flanking or controlled retreat attack.
The benefits of Rapid Attack and Smite trigger on Impale attacks.

Indomitable

Prerequisites: Will 5

Gives resistance to fear, confusion, stunning, and hallucination. Slows hunger to one third the normal rate.

Inner Light

Prerequisites: Will 5

Strengthens the light in your light radius against the unnatural darkness that some monsters create.
Each lit square is considered to be 1 brighter

Jeweler

Prerequisites: Smithing 4

Allows you to create rings, amulets, light sources and horns at a forge.
You can identify rings, amulets, light sources and horns you encounter.

Keen Senses

Prerequisites: Perception 3

Allows you to see enemies who are just beyond the edge of a pool of light.
Provides a +5 bonus to spotting ‘invisible’ enemies.

Knock Back

Prerequisites: Melee 3

When you hit a monster, you make a skill check to see if you can force them back a square. You roll twice your effective strength with that attack against twice their constitution. Your effective strength includes the modifiers for abilities like Charge or Rapid Attack, it is capped by the weight of your weapon, and then there is a +2 bonus if wielding a weapon with two hands.
They are only knocked back if there is an empty square for them to move into.
They miss their next turn if they are actually moved back.
Opportunist attacks don’t trigger Knock Back

Leaping

Prerequisites: Evasion 6

You can leap over a square of a chasm or trap. (Roosts and webs are not leapable).
You must have moved roughly towards it on the previous turn.
It takes the usual two turns to reach your destination, one of which is spent in the air and you can’t do anything in this turn, but can be attacked.

Listen

Prerequisites: Perception 8, Keen Senses

Gives you a chance each turn to detect monsters that you cannot see (including around corners and through doors).
This chance takes the form of a perception skill check:
difficulty = opponent’s stealth score

• –3 if it is awake but unwary
• –5 if it moved
• –10 if it called out or smashed a door
• –15 if it tunnelled through rock
• +(Song/2) if you are singing the Song of Silence
• +1 per square of distance along the shortest sound path
• +5 per closed door along the shortest sound path

Majesty

Prerequisites: Will 9, Channeling or Inner Light

Makes monsters more likely to flee, by lowering their morale (by half the difference between your Will and theirs).

Masterpiece

Prerequisites: Smithing 8, Enchantment

Allows you to create items whose difficulty exceeds your Smithing skill.
For each excess point of difficulty, you lose one Smithing skill point.
This loss is permanent, but you can always regain the point with more experience.

Master Hunter

Prerequisites: Perception 9, Consentration OR Bane

Gives you an attack bonus of +1 for each time you have killed an opponent of the same narrow type (up to a maximum of a quarter of your Perception).
e.g. killing 3 Orc soldiers gives you a +3 attack bonus against Orc soldiers.

Opportunist

Prerequisites: Stealth 7 Assassination OR Flollow-Through

If an opponent moves from a square which is adjacent to you to one which is not, you may immediately resolve an attack against them.
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.

Parry

Prerequisites: Evasion 4

Doubles the evasion bonus granted by your weapon.
This bonus does not apply to a weapon wielded in your off-hand.

Polearm Mastery

Prerequisites: Melee 4

Gives a +2 bonus to melee when using polearms.
Allows you to ‘set’ a polearm to intercept attackers.
If you waited last turn and any opponent who wasn’t adjacent to you moves into an adjacent position, you get a free attack on them.
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.

Point Black Archery

Prerequisites: Archery 4

When you provoke attacks of opportunity by firing your bow, the enemy you fired at doesn’t get one.

Poison Resistance

Prerequisites: Will 7, Strength in Adversity OR Hardness

Gives you a level of resistance to poison.

Power

Prerequisites: Melee 1

Gives a bonus of +1 damage sides to your melee attacks.
Increases the amount needed to score each level of critical hit by 1.
e.g. need to hit by 8 + weapon-weight instead of 7 + weapon-weight.

Puncture

Prerequisites: Archery 5

Whenever an enemy’s armour roll would fully block your archery damage roll, you deal the enemy a flat three damage instead.

Quick Study

Prerequisites: Perception 1

Lets you take other abilities without having the needed prerequisite abilities.
You still need the prerequisite skill level.

Rapid Attack

Prerequisites: Melee 13, Subtlety OR Opportunist

You receive two melee attacks instead of one, but they are calculated as if you had 3 fewer points of strength and dexterity.
The extra attack is only gained if this is a regular, flanking, whirlwind or controlled retreat attack.
In other cases the single attack doesn’t suffer the above penalties.

Riposte

Prerequisites: Evasion 10, Parry

If an opponent misses you in melee by at least 10 + your weapon weight, you get a free attack on it.
You only get at most one riposte per round.
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.

Rout

Prerequisites: Archery 2

Attacks on fleeing enemies are calculated as if you had 5 more points of Dexterity.

Smite

Prerequisites: Melee 11, Knock Back OR Charge

When using a two-handed weapon, the first main attack you make each turn rolls the maximum possible damage to all opponents it hits. If you make such an attack, you lose a turn to recover.
Whirlwind Attack and Impale count as main attacks that hit multiple enemies for the purposes of this skill.

Sprinting

Prerequisites: Evasion 7, Dodging OR Leaping

You gain +1 speed if you move four or more squares in roughly the same direction.
Each of the four moves can be up to 45° different from the one before it.
The speed lasts until you fail to meet the condition.
Note that you can never exceed speed 3.

Strength(Melee)

Prerequisites: Melee 20

You gain a point of Strength.

Strength in Adversity

Prerequisites: Will 3

Gives you bonuses to Strength, Dexterity and Grace when seriously injured:
+1 when ≤ 50% health,
+3 when ≤ 25% health.

Subtlety

Prerequisites: Melee 8, Finesse

If you wield a one handed weapon and have nothing in your off-hand, then the amount needed to score each level of critical hit is reduced by 2.
Note that hand-and-a-half weapons like Bastard Swords do not count as one handed weapons for these purposes.

Two Weapon Fighting

Prerequisites: Melee 12, Finesse OR Parry

You can wield a weapon in your off-hand instead of a shield.
Only one-handed weapons can be placed in your off-hand (no hand-and-a-half weapons).
You receive an attack with this weapon which is calculated as if you had 3 fewer points of strength and dexterity. The extra attack is only gained if this is a regular, flanking, whirlwind or controlled retreat attack.
If Impale or Two-weapon Fighting attacks would both be valid, you may choose to impale your enemy instead of striking with both weapons.

Vanish

Prerequisites: Stealth 8, Disguise

It is easier to make enemies unwary again.
Instead of needing to beat them by more than 25 in their perception check when out of line of sight in order to reduce their alertness, you only need to beat them by more than 15.

Vengeance

Prerequisites: Will 8, Strength in Adversity

When you are damaged in melee by an enemy, your next successful attack gains an additional damage die. This effect does not stack and a maximum of one die can be gained this way on each attack.

Versatility

Prerequisites: Archery 7

If you have more skill points in archery than in melee, you gain a bonus to melee of half the difference between the two scores (rounding down).

Weaponsmith

Prerequisites: Smithing 2

Allows you to create weapons when at a forge.
Includes bows and arrows.

Whirlwind Attack

Prerequisites: Melee 9, Polearm Mastery OR Follow-Through

When you attack an enemy, you get apply the to-hit and damage rolls on all other enemies that are adjacent to you.
Extra crit dice are rolled in order of least crits first. eg. If there were monsters who got single crit, monsters who got double crit, and monsters who got quadruple crit, you'd roll the first die and apply it there, then the second and add it to the first for the duble crits, then the third and fourth and apply it to the remaining monsters. The extra attacks are only gained if this is a regular, flanking, or controlled retreat attack.
The benefits of Follow-Through, Smite, Rapid Attack and Two Weapon Fighting all trigger for each extra attack.
If both Impale and Whirlwind Attack would be valid, you perform a Whirlwind Attack.

Woven Themes

Prerequisites: Song 10

Allows you to add a ‘minor theme’ to your song.
This means that you can begin a second song and have its effect in addition to your major song, but its power is less, treating you as if your Song skill were half what it is.
The noise from your singing is the average of the two songs, and the voice cost is the sum of the two.
You can end the minor theme without ending the major theme, and you can swap the order of the themes.

Zone of Control

Prerequisites: Melee 10, Finesse OR Polearm Mastery

If an opponent moves between two squares which are both adjacent to you, you may immediately resolve an attack against them and declare your next action.
Note that you don’t get the free attack if you cannot see the opponent or you are confused.

Songs

Song of Challenge

Prerequisites: Song 1

"You begin a strident song of mockery and scorn."

Boosts your enemies’ morale and makes them aggressive.
Morale is boosted by up to +3
Enemies with morale greater than 5 become aggressive
Aggressive enemies who would normally attack from range or maintain their distance may be further angered into charging to attack at close range.
Both checks involve a skill check of your Song skill against a difficulty of (enemy’s Will skill * enemy’s Will skill) / 10

• +1 per square of distance along the shortest sound path
• +5 per closed door along the shortest sound path

Voice: ⅓ per turn. Noise: 12

Song of Delvings

Prerequisites: Song 2

"You begin a song about the rocky bones of the earth."

Reveals terrain adjacent to known areas, including forges, stairs, traps and secret doors
. Squares adjacent to squares already known to you are revealed if they pass the check: Song - distance from player > 1d6
Stairs and forges do not need to be adjacent to a wall to be seen.
Voice: ⅓ per turn.
Noise: 4

Song of Elbereth

Prerequisites: Song 1

"You begin a song to the Queen of the Stars."

Causes fear in intelligent enemies.
This is done through a skill check of your Song skill versus:
difficulty = enemy’s Will skill

• +1 per square of distance along the shortest sound path
• +5 per closed door along the shortest sound path

Temporarily lowers their morale by 1 per point you succeed by.
Voice: ⅓ per turn.
Noise: 8

Song of Freedom

Prerequisites: Song 2

"You begin a song of freedom and safe passage."

Eases your passage through the dungeon.
It gives you free action (protection from entrancement and slowing) and makes existing effects of these types wear off very quickly.
It has a chance of disarming nearby traps (whether discovered or not), removing rubble, and discovering secret doors and unlocking locked or stuck doors or chests.
This is done through a skill check of your Song skill versus:
difficulty = base of: dungeon-level/2 + 5

• +1 per square of distance along the shortest sound path
• +5 per closed door along the shortest sound path

Voice: ⅓ per turn. Noise: 4

Song of Lorien

Prerequisites: Song 8, Song of Silence

"You begin a soothing song about weariness and rest."

Lowers the alertness of nearby enemies, making them unwary and then ultimately putting them to sleep.
This is done through a skill check of your Song skill versus:
difficulty = enemy’s Will skill + 5

• +1 per square of distance along the shortest sound path
• +5 per closed door along the shortest sound path

Voice: 1 per turn.
Noise: 4

Song of Mastery

Prerequisites: Song 9, Song of Freedom

"You begin a song of mastery and command."

Attempts to make nearby enemies completely powerless before you.
If you succeed in a skill check against an enemy, they will completely miss their turn, staying still and not attacking.
This skill check uses your Song skill against:
difficulty = enemy’s Will skill + 7

• +1 per square of distance along the shortest sound path
• +5 per closed door along the shortest sound path

Voice: 1 per turn.
Noise: 8

Song of Silence

Prerequisites: Song 3

"You whisper a song of silence."

Quietens sounds in the dungeon, making opponents less likely to notice you.
Lowers the noise you make by half your Song skill, effectively giving opponents a penalty of this size to their perception checks.
Also gives this penalty to opponents in hearing each other when they call for help etc.
But it even gives this penalty to your own perception checks if using the ‘listen’ ability.
Voice: ⅓ per turn.
Noise: 0

Song of Staunching

Prerequisites: Song 3

Stops all bleeding and speeds healing of your wounds.
Each point of Song skill heals 1/12 of a point of health each turn.
Voice: 1 per turn.
Noise: 4

Song of Staying

Prerequisites: Song 7, Song of Challenge OR Song of Staunching

"You begin a song about the courage of great heroes past."

Gives you [2d2] protection.
This protection works against all damage types, like a ring of protection.
Increases your Will skill by 1 for every point of Song skill.
Voice: 1 per turn.
Noise: 8

Song of the Trees

Prerequisites: Song 5, Song of Elbereth OR Song of Staunching

"You begin a song about the Two Trees of Valinor."

Increases your light radius by 1 per 5 points of Song skill.
Voice: ⅓ per turn.
Noise: 4

Song of Thresholds

Prerequisites: Song 6, Song of Elbereth OR Song of Delvings

"You begin a song of ways guarded and impassable."

Doors you close while singing this song are warded. Warded doors can be green, blue or purple.

• Green doors are wards that take a 20 strength Will check to pass.
• Blue doors are wards that take a 25 strength Will check to pass.
• Purple doors are wards that take a 30 strength Will check to pass.

The ward strength is determined by a 1d10 Song skill check with difficulty 15.

If the skill check fails, the ward on the door is green. If the skill check succeeds, the ward on the door is blue. If the skill check succeeds by a margin of 10 or more, the ward is purple.

Voice: ⅓ per turn.
Noise: 4

Song of Whetting

Prerequisites: Song 4, Song of Challenge

Grants sharpness to a melee weapon of up to (Song/8) lbs in weight.
If you are wielding two weapons, Whetting can grant sharpness to them both provided that the combined weight of both weapons is below (Song/8) lbs.
Voice: ⅓ per turn.
Noise: 4

Movement

During an encounter the GM will count up for the number of seconds that have passed. They'll say "and" between the numbers to signify half-seconds should somebody need them. When your number comes up, notify the GM and take your turn. If multiple players have turns at the same time, feel free to take them in any order. When it doesn't matter just go clockwise with enemy turns going last.

On a players turn execute the results of their last action including evasion and armor rolls, and declare thier intent for their next action. If the action doesn't require a roll, then they roll for armor and evasion and announce the results on their next turn. If it requires one or more rolls, they make them while play goes around the table and announce the results during their next turn.

Sil-G operates in seconds. Your speed determines how fast a typical action is. There are 4 speeds, any bonuses or penalties that would bring you outside this range cap at the closest legal value.

• 1 Speed: You move half as fast. Every standard action takes 4 seconds.
• 2 Speed: The default. Every standard action takes 2 seconds.
• 3 Speed: You move faster than normal. Standard actions take 1.5 seconds.
• 4 Speed: You move very fast. Standard actions take 1 second.

Combat

Each attack you make has two stages:

• Roll to see whether you hit your target.
• If you hit, then roll to see how much damage you do.

Weapons and Armour

Weapons and armour have a few numbers displayed next to their names which explain how they relate to these two phases of an attack. Take an axe for example:

Battle axe (-3,3d4)

This battle axe provides a penalty of –3 to accuracy, and if it hits it does 3d4 points of damage. Armour is quite similar:

Leather armour [-1,1d4]

This suit of leather armour has a penalty of –1 to evasion, making you slightly easier to strike than if you were unarmoured. However, it also offers some protection, absorbing 1d4 points of damage each time you are struck. These are very simple examples and sometimes it can be more complex. For example:

Greatsword (-2,3d5) [+1]

Mail corslet (-1) [-3,2d4]

This greatsword offers a +1 bonus to evasion, making you slightly harder to strike. This represents your ability to parry with it. On the other hand, the mail corslet is sufficiently cumbersome that it gives a penalty to accuracy as well as a penalty to evasion. You can work out which numbers apply to offense and which apply to defence as follows:

• Offense comes first and is in round brackets.
• Defence comes second and is in square brackets.

Attacking

To determine whether an attack hits, the attacker makes an attack roll opposing the defenders most recent evasion result. If the attack roll is greater, then the attack hits and they immediately roll for damage.

Attack roll: Attacker’s melee score + 1d20

Evasion roll: Defender’s evasion score + 1d20

When the attack is declared, the attackers asks the current evasion score of the target and uses that for the attack.

The melee and evasion scores are the associated skills combined with a number of modifiers. Firstly, as noted above, the skills are affected by your weapons and armour. They can also be affected by other things, such as being stunned (which gives –2 to all your skills including both melee and evasion), being overwhelmed, and various special abilities. The penalty for being overwhelmed only affects evasion. The size of the penalty depends upon how many monsters are surrounding you, and on where they are relative to the monster who is currently attacking. You get a –2 penalty for each monster that is in one of the three sides furthest away from the attacking monster, and a –1 penalty for any other adjacent monsters. This is a severe penalty, and even weak monsters can become deadly when they surround you.

Finally, the melee score is halved if the attacker cannot see the defender and the evasion score is likewise halved if the defender cannot see the attacker. Opponents that are unwary count as not being able to see you for these purposes. If you are unfortunate enough to be fighting from within a pit or a web, both your evasion and melee scores are halved (again). If someone is completely unable to move (i.e. an enemy is asleep or the player is entranced) then their evasion score is set to –5 irrespective of any other relevant modifiers.

Doing Damage

Damage is resolved when an attacker reports the results of the roll on their next turn. When the damage is resolved, the target reduces the damage by the most recent protection roll.

To determine how much damage is dealt when an attack hits, the attacker makes a damage roll and subtracts the reult of the defender's protection rolls. If the result is 0 or less, the attack does no damage. If it is greater, it does damage equal to the result.

In simple cases, the damage roll is just the damage of the weapon, and the protection roll is the sum of the protection rolls for every piece of armour being worn. However, there are often modifiers on the weapon damage. Some of these affect the number of dice that are rolled, while others affect how many sides these dice have.

For each point of strength the attacker has, a side is added to the dice. For example, if you have strength 3 and are wielding the axe mentioned earlier, you would do 3d7 damage instead of the basic 3d4. However, there is a limit to how much strength can be applied with a given weapon. Your strength bonus is limited to 1 point of bonus damage for each 1 lb of weapon weight. For example, no matter what strength you have, you couldn’t get more than 4 bonus sides with a 4 lb battle axe. High strength characters will want to use heavier weapons (to take advantage of their strength) and weapons with many dice (to take advantage of the extra sides). Note that negative strength subtracts sides of damage up to the same strength limit based on weapon weight.

Some weapons are ‘hand-and-a-half’ weapons, which can be used one-handed or two- handed. If you are not wearing a shield, you are presumed to be wielding these weapons two-handed and are given a bonus 2 damage sides. To continue the example above, let’s suppose that the battle axe is being used with two hands, giving it a total damage of 3d9.

Extra damage dice are added in two ways. Some weapons are especially deadly against certain enemies. In such cases, they do an extra die of damage. For example, if the axe above is an axe of orc-slaying and is being used against an orc, it will do 4d9 damage instead of 3d9. Elemental brands (such as fire brand or frost brand) are similar, doing an extra die of damage against enemies that do not resist the element and 2 extra dice against enemies that are explicitly vulnerable to it (such as fire damage against a frost demon). As always, damage by your enemies works the same way. For example if a Werewolf bites you with a 2d9 poison attack, you will take 3d9 damage if you do not resist poison. Elemental attacks are thus a bit more dangerous than they first appear in the monster recall window.

It is also possible to get extra dice via critical hits. These are awarded when the attack roll exceeds the evasion roll by a particularly large amount. This amount is determined by the weight of the weapon, with lighter weapons more likely to produce critical hits, due to their easier handling.

To get a critical hit, you need to beat the evasion roll by a certain amount. This amount is 7 points plus one point per pound of weight of your weapon. You are granted a bonus damage die for every multiple of this amount by which you exceed the required score. For example, if wielding a 3 lb longsword, you would need to beat the evasion score by 10 points to get the first bonus die, by 20 points for the second die, 30 points for the third, and so on. This sounds very difficult, but characters who concentrate on accuracy can get very large critical hits, particularly on sleeping or unwary monsters. Of course, monsters can also get critical hits upon you if you are too poor at evasion. You don’t need to memorize this formula; just bear in mind that high accuracy and light weapons can sometimes do a lot of extra damage.

In summary, the weapon damage can gain extra sides from strength or from two-handed wielding, and extra dice from ‘slays’ and critical hits.

Archery

Archery is very similar to melee, but with a few differences. Firstly, the attack roll uses the archery skill instead of the melee skill. To this is added the attack bonus of the arrow being fired, and a range penalty of –1 for every 5 squares the target is from the archer. In addition, the defender’s evasion score is halved against archery (this can stack with the halvings mentioned above). This makes evasion considerably less useful against archery than against melee.

Damage is calculated almost identically to melee, incorporating strength, ‘slays’ and critical hits. The strength bonus of bows is again limited to 1 point per 1 lb of weapon weight.

The range of a bow is equal to 1.5 times the number of sides of damage you do with it. Thus, if you are doing 1d10 with your Longbow, its range will be 15 square.

Finally, it is very dangerous to use your bow when there are enemies in melee range. Firing your bow in such a circumstance will let your guard down. When this happens, all enemies targeting you with melee have the option to either resolve their attack immediately against you and take another turn, OR they can halve your evasion roll for the attack. Enemies adjacent to you attacking other characters may also choose to switch their target to you, though they cannot resolve immediately or halve your evasion.

Thrown Weapons

Throwing is like melee, but with a few differences. Firstly, many items are not designed to be thrown and they thus give a penalty of –5 to the attack roll when thrown. The items that are designed to be thrown include daggers, throwing axes, spears and tridents. All throwing attacks also suffer a range penalty of –1 for every 5 squares.

Damage is just like melee, except that the number of damage sides is halved if the object was not designed for throwing. Thus, even if you can hit with a thrown longsword, it will do a lot less damage than in melee.

The range is calculated from the weight of the object and your carrying capacity (which in turn depends on your strength).

Range: carrying capacity / (5 × (weight + 2))

For example, if you can carry 100 lb and are throwing a spear weighing 4 lb, then your range is 100 / (5 × (4 + 2)) = 3.333 = 3 squares. It's easiest to calculate this before combat and mark it on your sheet.

Elements and Resistances

As well as purely physical attacks, there are four special types of elemental attack that some monsters may use against you:

Fire

• The most common and dangerous element — the fires of Angband are legendary.
• It can destroy arrows, bows, axes, polearms, hafted weapons, boots, gloves, cloaks, soft armour, chests, torches and staffs.

Cold

• Treated similarly to fire, but less common and less dangerous.
• It can destroy potions and flasks of oil.

Poison

• Many spiders and werewolves are famed for their deadly poison.
• Instead of damaging you directly, poison damage is added to your poison counter. If you don’t take steps to prevent this, you will eventually suffer all of this damage. Each round, the poison counter is reduced by 20% and you suffer this damage.

Darkness

• Morgoth is the Lord of Darkness, and some of his servants use darkness itself against you.
• Darkness resistance works differently to the other elements. There is no ‘darkness resistance’ available, except a strong source of light. If the light level on your square is above 2, you get a level of darkness resistance counted for each level of excess.

Elemental Damage

Elemental attacks are either pure (like dragon breath and poison gas), or mixed with physical damage (like a balrog’s flaming sword). Mixed elemental damage was explained in the combat section: if you don’t have the relevant resistance, you take an extra die of damage. If you are especially vulnerable, you take two extra dice of damage. There is no advantage in having multiple sources of resistance to mixed elemental damage.

Dragons and some other foes have potent elemental breaths. Their breath spreads out in a cone, damaging everything within, but the damage decreases by 2d4 for each square. Armour is usually no defence against such an attack. The only sources of protection that count are special protection from special abilities, or magical rings and amulets. If it is fire or cold damage, you can also count the protection from your shield. Any damage that gets through this meagre protection is then halved if you have resistance, or divided by three if you have double resistance etc. If you are vulnerable to the element, the damage is doubled.

Morale

Sil has a sophisticated morale model for its enemies. Other than mindless creatures (which always just attack you) most enemies take stock of the situation and retreat if needed. They have a morale level which changes depending on the circumstances.

Bonuses:

• The base for morale (6)
• Appearing after their usual depth (+1 per 50 ft)
• The player is escaping Angband with a Silmaril (+2, instead of the depth modifier)
• The player is blind, hallucinating, or stunned (+2 each)
• The player is confused, slow, afraid, or heavily stunned (+4 each)
• The player is entranced or knocked out (+8 each)
• The player has ≤ 75% health (+2)
• The player has ≤ 50% health (+4)
• The player has ≤ 25% health (+8)
• The monster is hasted (+4)
• Similar creatures in line of sight that are not fleeing (+1 each, or +4 for leaders)

Penalties:

• Appearing before their usual depth (–1 per 50 ft)
• The monster is stunned (–2)
• The monster has ≤ 75% health (–2)
• The monster has ≤ 50% health (–4)
• The monster has ≤ 25% health (–8)
• The monster is already fleeing and ≤ 75% health (–2)
• Light susceptible and the player’s square has more than 3 light (–1 per level in excess)
• A non-unique monster is carrying items (–2 per item)
• The player has the ability Majesty (–1 per 4 points of player’s Will)
• The player has the ability Bane (–x, where x is the player’s Bane bonus)
• Similar creatures in line of sight that are fleeing (–1 each, or –4 for leaders)

Temporary modifiers (which decay by 1 each turn):

• Unable to escape (+6)
• Just stopped fleeing (+6)
• Just started fleeing (–6)
• It (or a similar creature) is hit by a slaying weapon (–2)
• It (or a similar creature) is hit by an elemental brand it is especially vulnerable to (–2)
• It (or a similar creature) is hit by a Cruel Blow (–2)
• A similar creature is killed in line of sight (–4, or –16 for a leader)
• Song of Elbereth (–1 per point by which you won the skill check)
• Horn of Terror, Staff of Majesty (–2 per point by which you won the skill check)

The morale level of an enemy determines its ‘stance’ which can be one of the following three:

Aggressive

• (Morale > 20)
• Aggressive monsters simply attack you.
• Mindless creatures are always Aggressive.
• Trolls are Aggressive instead of Confident.
• Enemies who have been angered are Aggressive instead of Confident.
• Items of Wrath make creatures Aggressive instead of Confident.

Confident

• (0 > Morale ≥ 20)
• Confident monsters may use tactics while attacking you (such as lurking in rooms waiting for you).

Fleeing

• (Morale ≤ 0)
• Fleeing monsters try to get as far away from you as possible.
• Creatures that are immune to (non-magical) fear stay Confident instead of fleeing

Stealth

In the tale on which Sil is based, Beren and Luthien did manage to enter Angband, obtain a Silmaril, and escape. This they achieved not by force, but by subterfuge. Similarly it is possible to succeed in Sil by sneaking past your enemies rather than fighting them.

Mechanics

At any time, an individual monster may be in one of three states:

Asleep

• They cannot move and their evasion is set to [–5].

Unwary

• They are awake and going about their business, but they do not know that you are there. Their evasion is halved.

Alert

• This is further subdivided into whether they are Confident, Aggressive, or Fleeing, but this is a matter of morale rather than stealth.

The GM keeps track of an ‘Alertness’ score for the monster. Monsters always start out Asleep or Unwary, but may as a result of your actions notice you. An ‘Alertness’ of 0 or more means they are aware of you; between –1 and –10 means they are awake but unwary, and –11 or below usually means they are asleep. But be warned: not all inhabitants of Angband sleep!

Every minute, you make a Stealth roll (your stealth score + 1d10), to see how stealthy and quiet you are. Each minute the monsters makes a Perception roll (their perception score +1d10), to see how observant they are. Various modifiers are applied, listed below. If at any time the monster's perception score is higher than your stealth score, their Alertness increases by difference which may make them move from Asleep to Unwary, or from Unwary to Alert.

Modifiers to Stealth

Helpful factors:

• Distance to monster: each square reduces monster perception by 1 point, and sound does not pass through stone or rubble at all.
• Each closed door on path reduces monster perception by 5.
• If you are in Stealth mode(but be warned that it makes you move more slowly than normal), you get a bonus of +5 to your stealth
• If you passed last turn, you get a bonus of +7 to your stealth(not cumulative with Stealth mode).

Hindrances:

• For each 10 lb of armour you are wearing (–1)
• Being attacked by one or more enemies (–2)
• Attacking one or more enemies (–2)
• Awake but unwary monsters which are in line of sight get some additional bonuses:
• Doubles the modifiers for attacking or being attacked
• For every adjacent passable square (–1)
• So you may do well to stick to walls and corners.
• If you are singing, this reduces your stealth by a value equal to the noise level of the Song (see the list of Songs).
• Setting off some traps (–5 to –10)
• Landing from a leap (–5)

One-off effects that are not modified by stealth:

• Player actions:
• Earthquakes (30)
• Horns (10 to 40)
• Smithing (10)
• Bashing doors (5 or 10)
• Tunneling(5 or 10)
• Setting off some traps (–10 to 20)
• Monster abilities:
• Earthquakes (30)
• Arrows (5)
• Boulders (10)
• Crying out (10)
• Breath weapons (10)
• Unearthly screeching (20)

Stealth is thus quite abstract: a high stealth may mean little noise made, or that you kept in the shadows, or that you moved in an unobtrusive way, or let the noises that did occur sound like the natural background noises in the dungeon.

If you attack a monster, or an unaware monster tries to move into the square you are on, it will immediately notice you.

Once a monster has noticed you, it will become unwary again if you are out of sight of it, and it fails its perception check to spot you by 25 points or more. In this case, they lose a point of alertness for each point in excess of 25 that they fail by. This is very hard to achieve and will typically require you to get a fair distance from the monster and close some intervening doors. Note that this number is reduced to 15 if you have the ability ‘Vanish’. In addition, there are a few other ways in which you can make monsters become unwary:

• It is possible to put monsters to sleep with a Staff of Slumber or the Song of Lorien.
• Territorial monsters such as dragons will become unwary or even fall asleep if they have returned to their lairs and cannot see you.

Smithing

As well as its many treasures, Angband has mighty forges, to arm the hosts who fight under Morgoth's banner. If you find one, you may be able to use such a forge to make yourself arms or armour, or even items of great power.

To create an item, you need:

• to be at a forge which has enough resources left,
• to have the relevant Smithing Ability:
• Weaponsmith for weapons, including bows, arrows, and digging implements
• Armoursmith for armour, including cloaks and shields
• Jeweller for amulets, rings, and light sources
• Enchantment if you want to add a special enchantment to a weapon, piece of armour, or light source
• to have enough mithril, if the item requires it,
• to have a high enough Smithing skill (which depends on the item type and the bonuses you add to it),
• to put a part of yourself into the item, for certain types of enchantment:
• this can be experience points, which is a permanent cost (this is normally the cost for items which grant Abilities or give bonuses to Skills),
• it may instead be one or more stat points (which will be drained until such time as you eat or drink something which can restore them).

Making an item will take ten turns per point of difficulty, and makes noise, so you may be interrupted during this time. If this occurs you can resume your forging where you left off.

Some items are particularly easy to enchant. The costs for weapons (including bows), shields, body armour, helms, and amulets are lower than those for other equipment slots. The costs for robes, sceptres, and crowns are even lower.

Creating artefacts

Truly great smiths are capable of working beautiful or terrible pieces. If you have the Artifice ability, you will be able to create your own artefacts, which may be a matter for songs and legends of the future. This can let you customise your items much further, as well as going beyond the bounds of what is normally possible. In addition you can name your artefacts, and they are virtually indestructible. Creating an artefact is a great work, and requires three uses from a forge. These must all be at the same forge, so you must find a forge with enough resources; it is impossible to begin work at one and finish at another.

Enchanted forges

Many forges in Angband are used just to produce swords and mail for the legions of orcs, but some few are used for the axes of the Valaraukar or the armour of the Troll Guard of Gothmog. If you are lucky enough to be working at such a forge, it will give you a bonus to your Smithing, allowing you to make more powerful items than otherwise.

Temporary Status Effects

At certain times you may find yourself suffering from various effects. These will usually wear off in time, and there is typically some kind of consumable item to be found which will immediately remove the effect.

Hunger

• Gorged
• You are so full that you cannot eat or drink any more until you recover
• Full
• Hungry
• Weak
• You are at –1 to Strength until you manage to eat enough food to recover
• Starving
• You take a point of damage each turn and no longer regenerate health

Other negative effects

• Blind
• You cannot see anything.
• Note that Melee, Evasion, and Archery are halved against foes you cannot see.
• Hallucinating
• Enemies and objects look like other enemies or objects.
• You occasionally see things that are not there.
• Slow
• When you have a Speed of 1 you are considered Slow.
• May be caused by carrying more weight than your weight allowance (in which case the only way to stop it is to reduce your load).
• Confused
• You are unable to choose directions normally for moving, attacking, etc.
• Attempting to choose a direction may randomly choose a nearby direction instead by rolling a d8.
• Afraid
• You are too afraid to attack, either by melee, archery, or throwing.
• Entranced
• You are frozen in place, cannot act, and are at [-5] evasion.
• This is broken the first time an enemy attacks you (or when enough time passes).
• Stunned
• (1 to 50 turns on the stun counter)
• You get –2 to all of your skills
• Heavily Stunned
• (51 to 100 turns on the stun counter)
• You get –4 to all of your skills
• Knocked Out
• (101 to 105 turns on the stun counter)
• You are frozen in place, cannot act, and are at [-5] evasion.
• Poisoned X
• You have been poisoned and will take X damage over the next few rounds.
• Each round you take 20% of X damage (rounded up) and X is decremented by this amount.
• Bleeding X
• You are bleeding from an open wound.
• Handled like Poisoned X.

Drained Stats

• This will not heal with time: you must find some item to cure it.

Resistances

• Elemental resistances are described in the section on the elements.
• Resistance to a status effect grants a very large bonus (+10) to any roll to avoid it.
• Free Action conveys resistance to Slowness and Entrancement, as well as helping you escape from Webs.
• See Invisible grants a +10 bonus to seeing otherwise invisible enemies.

There are various positive status effects which may be granted by pieces of equipment or consumables (in the latter case they are always temporary). These include resistances, increased stats or light radius, speed, etc, which are generally explained elsewhere.

Of special note is Regeneration:

• You regain health at three times the normal rate.
• You regain voice at three times the normal rate.
• You also suffer from great hunger, and will grow hungry at three times the normal rate

Items

Enemies