GM Guide

This guide is written for Game Masters and players who just want to use FaDe — no code required. It covers the rules systems you can turn on and off, the item types you'll be dragging onto sheets, and the built-in tools FaDe gives you at the table.

The Rules Systems

FaDe ships with several interchangeable rule systems. You pick the one that fits your game in the world's System Settings (most are set once per world and apply to everyone). Nothing here is locked in — that's the point of the system.

To-Hit

How attack rolls are resolved:

• THAC0 — classic "roll high" THAC0.
• Classic — old-school descending AC attack tables.
• Heroic (default) — a streamlined to-hit roll against an attack value.
• Dark Dungeons — the attack resolution used by the original inspiration.
• AAC — ascending armor class, where higher AC is better.

Ability Checks

How checks against the six ability scores work:

• Basic (default) — a single flat roll against the score.
• Tiered — harder and easier degrees of success or failure.

Related settings let you choose the ability score modifiers table (Simple, Heroic, or Original) and the roll formula (default 1d20), and even whether monsters get ability scores at all.

Encumbrance

How much your party can carry, and how it slows them down:

• None — no tracking.
• Basic — rough armor-weight categories.
• Classic — weight-based with standard load limits.
• Expert (default) — the detailed movement-and-load system.

Encumbrance feeds directly into the actor's movement rates, so a heavily loaded character automatically moves slower.

Initiative

How the combat tracker is driven:

• Individual — each combatant rolls and acts on their own.
• Simple Individual — individual rolls without the extra bookkeeping.
• Individual Checklist — individual initiative with per-combatant tracking.
• Group (default) — side-based initiative.
• Advanced Group — group initiative with declared actions.

You also control the initiative formula (default 1d6) and what happens at the start of a new round — hold the order, reset it, or reroll.

Combat & Characters

• Weapon Mastery — None, Classic, or Heroic (default). Heroic mastery is what powers the per-level mastery progression on the sheet.
• Class System — Single (default) for one class per character, or Advanced for multi-classing.
• Armor Value — an optional toggle that makes armor absorb damage (AV) instead of just improving AC.
• Declared Actions — during combat, players declare what they're doing each round. A world setting you can turn on with any initiative mode.
• Round & Turn duration — how many real seconds a combat round and a dungeon turn last (defaults: 10s round, 10-minute turn).

Roll Formulas

If you want a different die convention, most rolls are configurable: attack roll formula (default 1d20), ability check formula, and initiative formula are all editable settings.

Item Types

Every item in FaDe is one of the following. Most have their own sheet layout, so the fields you see match what the item is for.

• Character Class — a class definition (hit dice, saves, abilities, level tables). Dragging one onto a character creates the class on that character, and the class system handles level-ups, saves, and abilities.
• Ancestry (species) — an ancestry definition: the required ability scores, allowed classes (with max level), height/weight formulas, and any ancestry-specific items.
• Weapon — melee and ranged weapons, with ranges, damage, mastery type, and per-group bonuses.
• Armor — armor and shields, with base AC and optional AC modifiers.
• Ammunition — arrows, quarrels, pellets, and siege ammo, with their own ranged modifiers.
• Adventuring Gear (item) — everything else, from rope to rations to magic rings.
• Light — torches, lanterns, candles, bullseyes, and magic lights. See Light Management below.
• Spell — spells with cast level, range, duration, and any attack or damage rolls.
• General Skill — skill definitions with bonuses.
• Weapon Mastery — a mastery definition and the actor's mastery items granted by level.
• Special Ability — class abilities, exploration abilities, and saving throws.
• Condition — conditions applied to tokens, carrying their own active effects.
• Treasure — coins, gems, and valuables tracked for encumbrance and value.

GM Tools

FaDe bundles a few small windows to help run the game. They're launched from a macro (see Macros) or from the console.

Party Tracker

A compact window listing the party's characters with their hit points, AC, THAC0, movement, and ability scores at a glance. Just drag actor documents onto it. It also shows the party's total level (TPL), and a button opens the Award XP dialog so you can hand out experience and let the system split and apply it. Double-click a member to open their sheet.

Turn Tracker

Keeps track of dungeon turns as the session goes on — session count, total count, and turns since the party last rested. You can advance or revert time, mark a rest, and reset the session or the whole campaign counter. Set a rest frequency (e.g. every 6 turns) and a "need rest" condition, and when the party is due, the tracker applies that condition to its tracked actors so everyone knows.

Player Combat

When combat starts, players get a window listing the combatants they control. Each player picks a declared action for the round (attack, fire, retreat, cast, and so on), and the system tracks attacks used and received. This powers declared-action initiative and the combat phases.

Light Management

Light items do more than sit in inventory. A character carrying a lit torch or lantern sheds real illumination on the scene, and FaDe tracks fuel. As world time advances, light sources burn down and expire — a torch lasts its duration in turns, then goes out on its own (and consumes fuel if it's self-fueled). The Ignite/Extinguish buttons appear on the item's chat card, so anyone can light a torch without opening a sheet.

Macros

FaDe makes hotbar macros easy to build:

• Drag an item onto the hotbar to create a macro for it. Supported types are weapons, adventuring gear, lights, special abilities, skills, and spells — clicking the macro rolls or activates the item for the active token's actor.
• Drag a roll table onto the hotbar to create a macro that draws from that table.

In the Chat

When you roll something, FaDe posts the result as an interactive chat card rather than a bare number:

• Attack and damage rolls come back with buttons to apply damage or healing to the target token.
• Conditions applied from the chat prompt can be removed the same way.
• Saving throws and other prompts offer the needed roll right in the card.

You can enable toasts — small on-screen notifications alongside chat messages — and turn on a character-change log for the GM to audit what changed on a sheet and when.