Delving in STRIGA: Gameplay

A brief overview of STRIGA's gameplay mechanics and

Greetings, my fellow wizards of the Tome of Oddz! Today we dive deep into STRIGA’s gameplay mechanics! How does the game work? What about magic and exploration? Let’s find out together in this brief overview!

THE BASICS

Before we start getting deeper into the rules, STRIGA is an exploration-focused, 44 pages long TTRPG.
STRIGA is also a d20-based and “roll under” game. This means that when rolling for a check, your roll must be under your characteristic to succeed.
Example: Maria finds a locked door, and decides to ram it with her shield to see if the door breaks open. Maria has a Strength of 13, rolls a d20 an gets a 11. The door bursts open and the wood shatters!
There are 4 Characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Will, and Intelligence.
While the other 3 are pretty self-explanatory, Will is a particular Characteristic that is usually used to fight against Stress and fear. Speaking of Stress…

STRESS AND MAGIC

Each Character has a Stress meter of maximum 10. When Characters see something that would cause them stress or fear, they take a Will check, that when failed grants them 1 point of Stress. At 10 Stress, Characters Panic. Oh, you don’t wanna Panic, trust me.
To relieve Stress, Characters can rest, have a meal together, take a bath, and all the relaxing things you can think of.

However, not just stressful events raise the Stress meter. Magic does too.
Casting a Spell gives the Character 1 point of Stress. Since Magic is derived from the Veil, a dimension where emotions take the form of an unbridled energy, tapping into that dimension is an extremely stressful task.
So Magi, beware! Cast your spells responsibly!

Anyone can cast Spells in STRIGA, provided they have a Spellbook. There are 100 Spells in STRIGA!

ARMOR AND COMBAT

Armor in STRIGA kinda replaces the commonly used "hit points". In this game getting hit means pieces of your armor fall off, your shield gets shattered and your helm creaks.

Once you lose all your Armor, you only have 3 Wounds. Get hit three times, and you're done.

This means that rather than using healing potions (which only restore a couple of wounds) the game makes you think creatively about your defense; grab shields and armor from defeated enemies, even pieces of furniture, anything to survive!

Considering how Armor works, you can see that Combat itself revolves more around “problem-solving” than “who hits harder wins”. To reinforce this feeling, Characters have access to a broad number of Skills that can be used in Combat to alter the course of the fight. A Giant Bat is tormenting you from above? Pin it down with “Immobilizing Shot” !

Just like Into The Odd by Chris McDowall (whom is credited in STRIGA as a great inspiration for the game!) STRIGA also takes for granted that people delving down a lost city filled with perils are trained in armed combat, and removes the “Roll to Hit” mechanics of old school games. You are an Extractionist, you know how to swing a sword and hit an enemy in front of you. Question is only how much damage you do!

THAT’S IT FOR TODAY…KINDA

Since STRIGA is a 44 pages long game, I could talk about its rules for a very long time, so to keep it digestible, we will stop here for today. With that being said though, we may have another article for further details about other aspects of gameplay, who knows!

What we do know instead, is that STRIGA is currently 356% funded and it is all thanks to you. As of writing, we are sitting at 713 €, meaning we are veeery very close to unlocking a third stretch goal, that includes even more stock art for the Creative Kit!

You can find STRIGA’s Kickstarter page here. Every bit helps, so thank you!
See you in the Spiral City!