How To Play Gates of Krystalia Hi everyone, this is a special how to play episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for a tabletop roleplaying game called Gates of Krystalia. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play your own Gates of Krystalia game at home. My only level of expertise here is that I read the rule book, so, I possibly could and probably have gotten some of the following things wrong. But that’s okay, let’s begin. I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections. Game category Generic test Four hero abilities Competency tests ASMD instead of PEMDAS Combat encounters Fleeing Passing your turn Healing Dying Conditions Weapons Trauma and madness Corruption Coins Objects Carrying capacity Potions and gadgets Building a character Game category. Gates of Krystalia is a table top role playing game that is themed around the isekai anime genre. Isekai stories involve a person from our world being suddenly transported, transmigrated, dying and reincarnating, being summoned, or otherwise ending up in a magical world. Some of the most famous examples are So I’m A Spider So What?, Re: Zero Starting Life In Another World, and My Next Life As A Villainess All Routes Lead To Doom. There are also not yet animated manga, manwha, webtoons etc, such as The Greatest Estate Developer and Concubine Walkthough. You might notice some references to the isekai genre in these character abilities. Mechanically, Gates of Krystalia is a playing card based game, which is a bit different than twenty sided dice based games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and ten sided dice based games such as Call of Cthulhu. For combat and non-combat tests in Gates of Krystalia, players draw a card and add bonuses from their character sheets to that card’s number. They can also match the suit of the card to their ability to deal even more damage. Generic Test. Any time you want your character to do something, you will perform a test. The Game Master, call the D-E-U-X with a katakana phonetic guide of Dough, so, the Deux, will say a Difficulty Value, DV, for the action you’re trying to do. The Deux may add a bonus or subtract a penalty for your action. Players will have a deck of cards, which is called the Vital Energy, VE, deck. It’s a standard 52 card spades clubs hearts diamonds deck of cards, minus Jokers. Two through ten counts as their numeric value. Jacks are eleven, Queens are twelve, Kings are thirteen, and an Ace is both fourteen and a special perfect bonus for not only the person who draws it but also the whole party of players. Flip and look at the first card. If the number on the card you flipped, plus the bonus or minus the penalty, exceeds the difficulty value decided by the Deux, then you succeed at what you’re trying to do. If the number on the card you flipped, plus the bonus or minus the penalty, meets or is below the difficulty value decided by the Deux, then you failed at what you were trying to do. A small note from me is that most games let you succeed when you meet the set difficulty number. In Gates of Krystalia, you must be higher than the number to succeed. The phrase “meet it to beat it” does not apply here. Place the card you flipped and looked at into a face down pile in a different physical location in front of yourself called the fatigue zone. A small note from me is that this is different than most games where the discard pile is face up so you don’t get confused with your draw pile. The fatigue zone is face down. Don’t get your face down fatigue zone cards confused with the face down vital energy deck you’re drawing from. I might slightly loosely pile fatigued cards instead of neatly stacking them in a deck so I don’t get them confused with my vital energy deck. Heroes have four abilities: charisma represented by the heart card suit, agility represented by the diamond card suit, intelligence represented by spades, and toughness represented by clubs. Charisma, hearts, is for persuading non player characters and your artistic performances. Example social competency tests are convincing a merchant to lower their price, deceiving an enemy to get them to tell you crucial information, and charming your love interest. Agility, diamonds, is for avoiding traps, performing acrobatics, and sneaking stealthily. Example athletic competency tests are stealing an object without anyone noticing, disarming a mechanical trap, and moving silently through shadows. Intelligence, spades, is for solving puzzles, finding clues, and creating potions. Example intellectual competency tests are recognizing an ancient symbol and deciphering a text. Toughness, clubs, is for physical strength and enduring adverse environmental conditions. Example physical competency tests are climbing a mountain, not fainting after a marathon, and holding your breath underwater. Competency tests are similar to generic tests, except you add your ability bonus to the test. Here are the steps to performing a competency test. First, you the player say what you’re trying to do. Charm the dragon, sneak past the dragon, outsmart the dragon, stay standing after being tail slapped by the dragon, et cetera. The Deux declares the difficulty value, DV, of what you’re trying to do. A difficulty value of 5 is simple, 7 is medium, 10 is complicated, 13 is difficult, 15 is extreme, and 20 is impossible. Next, flip a card from your vital energy, VE, deck. Add the ability bonus from your character sheet that applies to the type of competency test you’re doing, charisma, agility, intelligence, or toughness. There might be situational bonuses to add or penalties to subtract, too. This card value plus any bonuses and minus any penalties is called the base result. Next, check to see if you have what’s called a blessing. A blessing happens when the suit of the flipped card is the same as the suit of the competence test, and you double the base result, the card plus the bonus. If this total value exceeds, not meets, exceeds, the difficulty value set by the Deux, the test is successful and you accomplish what you were trying to do. If the total value is the same or lower as the difficulty value set by the Deux, the test fails and you don’t accomplish what you were trying to do. Either way, the card that was revealed moves to the face down fatigue zone. Here is an example competency test. The Deux tells the players they have a tomato. Lia wants to crush the tomato. The Deux says this is a simple difficulty value, 5. Lia flips a card from her vital energy deck and adds her toughness ability. It’s a 3, plus her toughness of 2, equals 5 overall. The flipped card is a diamond, not the same suit as toughness clubs, so there is no blessing. In Gates of Krystalia you need to get higher than the difficulty value to succeed, so she fails at what she attempted. Lia roleplays that when she squeezes the tomato to crush it, it’s slippery and pops right out of her fist unharmed. Barnabas wants to catch the tomato before it splats on the ground. The Deux says this is a medium difficulty value, 7. Barnabas flips a card from his vital energy deck and adds his dexterity. It’s an 8 of diamonds, plus his agility of 2, equals 10 overall. The flipped card is a diamond, the agility suit, so it adds a blessing. Double that ten to a twenty. Barnabas succeeds, and roleplays catching the tomato with flair and grace. Markely wants to identify the tomato. The Deux say that this is an extreme difficulty value, 15. All the players gasp, surprised. What is this tomato? With a 6 of hearts from the vital energy deck and a 3 intelligence for 9 overall, the party still doesn’t know. Belle says well if we can’t figure out what it is maybe we can ask. She takes the tomato to a grocery vendor and tries to charm them into telling, offering three seeds from the tomato if they’ll identify it for her. The Deux says this is a complicated difficulty value, 10. Belle flips a card from her vital energy deck, 10, and adds her 1 charisma to it for an 11 overall, a success. The card was a spades, so it doesn’t add a blessing on this charisma check. The grocery vendor is willing to tell her about the secrets of the tomato in exchange for three of its seeds. Math in Gates of Krystalia follows a special order instead of the PEMDAS order that math in our world follows. Instead of Parentheses first, then exponents, then multiply and divide, then add and subtract, Gates of Krystalia has a different order. First add, then subtract, then multiply, then divide. Always round down unless the specific rule says to round up. Effects, Conditions, and Properties don’t stack. Once they’re active, they can’t be activated again to add a stronger effect number or replaced by the same effect to restart its duration. Combat encounters. Initiative, your turn order in combat, is determined by flipping the top card from your vital energy deck and adding your agility. You might have an innate ability or an object that affects initiative. If so, add that now. The person with the highest total number goes first. Player characters go before enemies who have the same number as them. Higher agility characters go first when there’s a tie between players. Slide the initiative card into the bottom of your vital energy deck instead of placing it in your fatigue zone. After you’ve drawn for initiative, draw five cards for your hand for this round. Special enemies will also draw five cards from their deck. Standard enemies don’t draw until they go to use a combat technique CT, or defend. These five cards are called your strategy cards, an
