Tales of Arcadia

Tales of Arcadia, 64th Edition

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Introduction

Tales of Arcadia is a generic tactical miniatures wargame which allows you to create armies of any setting to combat the armies of any other setting. Before the game begins, players buy units (with options) up to an agreed-upon point limit, which all players obey. These units constitute a battle force. A battlefield is then agreed on and all players place their units within their deployment zones and then the game begins. Tales of Arcadia was created by a few dozen individuals on /tg/ and distributed among its creators via e-mail. It is not widely distributed, even to this day, because of a desire among those that originally made it to keep the game from people that would plagiarize the mechanics. The old rules are slowly slipping, though, and more people are getting copies of the game, as well as the TXT file "sourcebook" unit lists that were made by many (read: all) of the old guard during the earlier editions. It is notable that ToA began as a combination RPG/wargame, and it is still entirely possible to use the old character advancement rules with the newer editions, which have eliminated this section to focus on the wargaming aspect.

Basic Concepts

• Die Notation: "Xd6" means "a roll of X 6-sided dice. "Xd3" means a roll of X 6-sided dice where the value is halved, rounding up. "Xd2" means a roll of X 6-sided dice where rolls of 1, 2, and 3 are treated as 1, and rolls of 4, 5, and 6 are treated as 2. Anytime "+X" or "-X" appears after a die note, it means "add/subtract X from the total after these dice are rolled". A note of dice (such as 2d6+1) is called a die pool.

• Roll-Off: If a roll-off is called for, all parties roll 1d6. The highest result wins the roll-off. If there are more than 2 parties, the second highest overtakes any others, and so on.

• Re-roll: If a re-roll is called for (this is usually voluntary), roll all the dice in a die pool again and ignore the original result. A re-roll of an attack applies to both the Accuracy Die and the Power Die.

• Unit: An individual playing piece with it's own statistics. A unit sometimes represents multiple beings, such as a swarm.

• Base: A flat surface onto which models are placed. A model and base, together, form a unit. A unit occupies the area of it's base.

• Measuring Distance: The distance between units is defined as the distance between the bases of said units.

• Line of Sight: If a straight line can be drawn between any point on a unit's base to any point on another unit's base, the first unit is said to have line of sight with the second unit. If a straight line can be drawn between every point on a unit's base to every point on another unit's base, it is called perfect line of sight. If this is not true, it is called imperfect line of sight. Allied unit's bases do not interfere with line of sight.

• Melee Attack: An attack made when the attacker's and defender's bases are in contact.

• Ranged Attack: An attack made when the attacker's and defender's bases are not in contact.

Units

Units always possess six statistics. They may also possess types, which have no intrinsic effects, and associated special rules. A battle force may only include units from a single army list.

The basic numbered statistics of a unit are as follows:

• Power (P): The amount of damage dealt with a successful attack.

• Accuracy (A): The number that the unit must equal of exceed to hit with an attack.

• Speed (S): Number of inches the character may be moved in a turn.

• Wounds (W): Number of wounds the character may receive before dying.

• Range (R): The distance at which an attack can be made.

• Defense (D): Amount of damage that can be taken from an attack without taking a wound.

Play

Turn order among players is decided by a roll-off and then play begins. Play occurs in rounds which are divided into player's turns. On your turn, you must activate a unit you control that is not exhausted (that has not been activated already this round). When activated, a unit may move up to it's Speed in inches, then attack (however, it doesn't have to do anything). If you have no units to activate, you must pass your turn. Then the other player(s) do the same in turn, until no player can activate any more units. Then the round ends, and a new round begins.

Attacking

First, one must check for range. Measure from the attacker's base to the defender's base. Then, if the defender is within range, roll 2 six sided dice of different colors. One of these is the Accuracy Die and the other is the Power Die. If the Accuracy Die equals or exceeds the Accuracy statistic of the attacker, then the attack hits. Otherwise, the attack misses and the attack is over. If the attack hits, compare the result of the Power Die plus the attacker's Power to the defender's Defense. If it equals or exceeds it, the defender takes a wound (that is, loses a Wound Point). A unit with 0 or fewer Wound points dies and is removed from the playing field.

Winning

A player wins if he is the only player with any surviving units. Other win conditions are also possible, such as regicide or territory.

Terrain

The playing field may contain various surfaces to be moved upon. If terrain is listed as "hindering terrain", then movement across it costs two inches of Speed, rather than one.

There are three types of movement: Walking, Swimming, and Flying. By default, a unit has Walking.

• Ground: Moved across normally.

• Rough Ground: A type of hindering terrain. Treated as normal terrain by units with Flying.

• Water: A type of hindering terrain. Treated as normal terrain by units with Flying or Swimming.

• Blocking: May not be moved or attacked through. A Flying unit may pass through blocking terrain, but may not end it's movement on it.

• Concealing: Moved across normally. Attacks made from, into, or through Concealing terrain have imperfect line of sight.

Cover

If an attacking unit has imperfect line of sight, the defender has Cover. "Cover" means that when an attack would hit the defender with cover, it has a 3:6 chance of automatically not hitting. This was erroneously listed as 2:6 in some of the older supplements, notably in the short-released Phantasy Star IV source material.

Variations

Many units have multiple possible forms. To use a variant, use any statistics listed under the variant; all other statistics are those of the base unit.

Keyworded Special Rules

• Rise Again: Any time this unit would die, it has the listed chance of not dying and being exhausted for the round if it is not already exhausted.

• Shroud: Once per turn, when an attack would hit this unit, the attacker must re-roll the attack.

• Flying: This unit treats hindering terrain as normal terrain and may move over enemy units (but not end it's movement on them).

• Swimming: This unit treats water as normal terrain.

• Pathfinding: This unit treats rough ground as normal terrain.

• Double Attack: This unit may attack twice per round.

• Counter-Attack: Whenever a unit attacks this unit, after the attack's resolution this unit may attack the previous attacker if it is in range.