The dice system for The Thin Veneer is deliberately incredibly simple. There are no (or very few) bells and whistles. Outcomes are resolved simply by rolling dice and comparing the results. The attributes and skills from the Modiphius role-playing game are re-used on this server, but the system itself is a simple d20 implementation.

Rolling dice

When you attempt something with an element of chance, you roll a digital die for it. The die is twenty-sided. Rolling a 1 on the die’s face is always a failure, and a 20 is always a success.

A modifier from an attribute or (more likely) a skill is added to the result on the die.

You typically try to match or exceed a certain number. This number is called a Difficulty Class (DC). The following table describes some guidelines. You can often set your own DCs prior to rolling, but sometimes you obey someone else’s DC, or use a DC dictated by the rules.

Task difficultyDC
Very easy5
Easy10
Medium15
Hard20
Very hard25

Attributes and skills

An attribute is a category of competence, and a skill is a subcategory thereof. All attributes start at -1 and can be raised to +4. Skills use the modifier of their associated attribute, and can be raised by an additional +3, for a total of +7.

Agility

Agility is the measure of your physical and manual dexterity, sense of balance, and body control.

Acrobatics

This skill is a measure of body control, covering whole-body movements such as jumping, tumbling, and diving. Attempts to dodge enemy Ranged attacks also fall under Acrobatics. Acrobatics covers any use of reflexes, agility, and coordinated movement to overcome obstacles or avoid attacks.

Melee (Agility)

This skill governs the ability to attack in melee combat. It covers all melee weaponry, from the rawest improvised weaponry to the most finely-honed implements of combat.

This variant of Melee exists for agile builds.

Stealth

The art of going unnoticed, such as staying hidden within shadows or moving silently. This skill also governs the creation and use of camouflage and disguises, and the ability to cover one’s tracks.

Awareness

Awareness represents perception and sense acuity across all five of the key senses: vision, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell.

Insight

Insight represents your ability to recognize if someone is lying, or to discern someone’s true intentions. It also governs the instincts and perceptions needed to notice signs of unnatural presences and sorcery.

Observation

This skill governs your ability to notice details and discern subtle environmental cues.

Survival

This skill covers the ability to find resources such as food and shelter in harsh environments, from hostile wilderness, crumbling ruins, caverns underground, through the lawless reaches of corrupt cities. It also governs the ability to find tracks and follow a target through such environments.

Thievery

Thievery allows you to engage in criminal activities with a reasonable expectation of success, providing an understand- ing of the nuances of the criminal underworld that exists beneath every ordered society. You may not necessarily be a thief or outlaw — knowing the tricks of this illicit trade is a valuable skill for the law-abiding as well — but it brings an understanding of how criminals act and think, as well as a familiarity with the techniques they employ.

Brawn

A measure of might, endurance, toughness, and the physical force you can exert.

Athletics

While the Brawn attribute measures raw strength, the Athletics skill represents how well you are able to use that strength. This skill is a measure of how well you can apply overall body strength, using leverage, brute force, or a combination of both. A high Athletics skill does not necessarily mean your character is covered with muscles, but emphasizes how well the muscular strength is used.

Melee (Brawn)

This skill governs the ability to attack in melee combat. It covers all melee weaponry, from the rawest improvised weaponry to the most finely-honed implements of combat.

This variant of Melee exists for strength-based builds.

Resistance

Resistance covers both natural resilience and physical conditioning to better endure conditions, activities, and events that would otherwise impair a character. This might include sensory deprivation, extremes of environment, poisons, diseases, physical deterioration, or extreme pain.

Coordination

The Coordination attribute describes hand–eye coordination, aim, and ability to navigate within one’s surroundings, both physically and mentally.

Parry

Parry is used to defend from blows, and constitutes most of the training a beginner gets in swordplay, using a weapon or shield to protect oneself.

Ranged Weapons

This skill covers the use and maintenance of ranged weaponry, as well as a familiarity with the damage such weapons inflict. This skill encompasses thrown weapons, bows, crossbows, and slings.

Sailing

This skill covers the ability to operate, maintain, and pilot a variety of watercraft. This covers boats and ships of many sizes and shapes, both oar-driven and sail-driven.

Intelligence

Intelligence is the measure of your wit, intellect, and a combination of studies and cunning learned on the streets.

Alchemy

You are familiar with alchemical theories and philosophies, including both practical applications and theoretical con- siderations. This encompasses the secrets of materials, the disciplines of chemistry and metallurgy, and philosophical musings upon the nature of existence.

This skill must have at least one point invested in it before it can be used.

Craft

This skill covers an understanding of the creation and maintenance of tools and structures. This covers a wide range of fields of expertise, including the disciplines of blacksmithing, carpentry, and masonry.

Healing

This skill provides the ability to give care to someone who has suffered injury or sickness, as well as all the knowledge that accompanies such skill.

This skill must have at least one point invested in it before it can be used.

Lore

This skill is a measure of your familiarity with the lands beyond your personal experience, as well as knowledge gained from books, scrolls, and tutors. This includes an understanding of history, politics, current events, and places both near and far.

Warfare

This skill governs the ability to use the tools and weapons intended for waging war around a fortification, whether inside or outside it. Siege weapons are far too large to be carried by a human being: even the smallest are colossal, heavy constructions. You are able to employ these powerful weapons, as well as having an understanding of the principles and strategies of battle, both as attacker and defender.

This skill must have at least one point invested in it before it can be used.

Personality

A measure of your charisma, ease of social interaction, and ability to be charming or deceptive as needed.

Animal Handling

This skill governs your ability to care for, train, and work with domesticated animals, including steeds, hunting beasts, war animals, and beasts of burden. The skill also provides an understanding of wild animals, and the knowledge about how to safely interact with them.

Command

Command is the measure of your ability to manipulate groups of people, including, but not limited to, those expected to defer to you, such as those of a lower military rank or social status.

Counsel

This skill governs your ability to provide sound advice and reassurance, calming the fears and easing the minds of others. A skilled counselor is a valuable asset in a dangerous world, and can help allies weather the terrors of a harsh and brutal life.

Persuade

This skill governs your ability to convince others, to make them believe what you wish, or even to assume one of your beliefs for a short while. It covers a wide range of interpersonal skills, such as the ability to charm, deceive, coerce, bribe, seduce, or haggle.

Society

Society represents your access to social influence, status within civilized culture, and access to resources such as cash and goods, as well as the ability to wield those assets effectively to get what you want. As Survival helps you function in the wilderness, Society helps you survive within the vicious circumstances of city life.

Willpower

A person’s force of will, and mental resolve.

Discipline

This skill provides you with the ability to withstand mental damage, as well as the self-discipline to avoid succumbing to interrogation, coercion, or fear.

Sorcery

This skill covers a knowledge and understanding of the unnatural arts of sorcery and the effects it can produce. It is a deeply sinister field of study, and few can stomach it.

This skill is restricted to sorcerers, and must have at least a single point invested in it before it can be used.

A note on the two Melee skills

In the Modiphius role-playing game, Melee is an Agility skill, and determines your chance to hit. The damage is then subsequently augmented by Brawn. Because we have no separate damage rolls, this would make Brawn mostly useless in combat, which doesn’t feel right.

As a solution, we have two Melee skills—one under Agility and one under Brawn. They both do the exact same thing, and it is technically pointless to invest points in both. For avoidance of doubt, they both govern all melee weapons. You can swing a heavy hammer with Melee (Agility), and you can use a dagger with Melee (Brawn). You are expected to portray an agile or brawny flair in role-play.

Caste

As part of creating your character, you are asked to pick a caste. Your character’s caste reflects their origins, not their present condition.

The castes are:

  • Noble — +1 Command.
  • Priest/Scholar — +1 Lore.
  • Warrior — +1 Athletics.
  • Merchant/Administrator — +1 Society.
  • Artisan/Labourer — +1 Craft.
  • Farmer/Hunter — +1 Animal Handling.
  • Domestic — +1 Counsel.
  • Performer — +1 Persuade.
  • Outcast — +1 Thievery.
  • Slave — +1 Discipline.

Literacy

Also as part of creating your character, you are asked to decide your character’s literacy. This does absolutely nothing mechanically. It exists to prompt you to consider this question.

If your character is illiterate and you come across a notice board in a non-hostile territory, you may freely assume that a friendly scribe or towncrier NPC helps you acquire the information written on the board, or that the information on the board is a topic of rumour in the area surrounding it.

Defences

You gain some passive defences that are calculated from your skills and other factors. They are:

  • Melee defence — 6 + Parry modifier + armour modifier; the ability to defend yourself in melee, typically attacked with Melee.
  • Ranged defence — 6 + Acrobatics modifier + armour modifier; the ability to not be hit at range, typically attacked with Ranged Weapons.
  • Passive Discipline — 10 + Discipline modifier; the ability to resist mental or social pressure, typically attacked with Persuade, Command, or Sorcery.
  • Passive Resistance — 10 + Resistance modifier; the ability to resist pain and bodily afflictions, typically attacked with Athletics, Melee, or Alchemy.
  • Passive Persuade — 10 + Persuade modifier; the ability to remain convincing under scrutiny, typically attacked with Insight.
  • Passive Insight — 10 + Insight modifier; the ability to guard against lies and ulterior motives, typically attacked with Persuade.
  • Passive Observation— 10 + Observation modifier; the ability to spot what should have remained hidden, typically attacked with Stealth or Thievery.
  • Passive Stealth — 10 + Stealth modifier; the ability to go undetected or to conceal actions or items, typically attacked with Observation.

When someone tries to do something to your character, these are the DCs. For instance, if someone tries to deceive your character with ‘Persuade’, then their roll must match or exceed your character’s passive Discipline.

This method of resolution between an attacker and defender is more stable than both parties rolling dice. If none of the above passive defences are appropriate for the scene, you may create a makeshift defence, which is 10 + a relevant skill's modifier.

Armour weight

Your armour class is calculated from the mechanical armour you wear. The system takes the average weight of armour, and rounds up to decide the final weight. Each weight has certain properties:

  • No armour — No changes to melee and ranged defence.
  • Light armour — +3 melee and ranged defence.
  • Medium armour — +5 melee and ranged defence (effective +4 after lowered Parry and Acrobatics); -1 Agility and Coordination.
  • Heavy armour — +8 melee and ranged defence (effective +6 after lowered Parry and Acrobatics); -2 Agility and Coordination; -3 Stealth.

You can announce your armour weight to everyone in the scene using the announce ability given to you (via Shift+R).

Note: The armour weight calculated by RPR does not match the armour weight calculated by Conan Exiles itself. Conan Exiles determines your mechanical armour weight by the heaviest piece of armour you wear.

Additional note: As per Armour, ’light armour’ may represent any type of light cloth or state of undress. ‘No armour’ is purely optional here.

PvP resolution

Two or more players fighting it out using the dice system is no complicated matter. The steps are as follows:

  • Decide who goes first. If you can’t decide, all parties roll Insight. Highest goes first. Re-roll as needed.
  • On your turn, you may do all of the following:
    • Move 5 foundations.
    • Do one action, which is:
      • A melee attack to a target within one foundation using the Melee skill.
      • A ranged attack to a target within ten foundations using the Ranged Weapons skill. This reduces the amount of foundations that can be moved on this turn to 2.
      • Move another 5 foundations. Only sparingly use this to disengage—PvP should take place within the same area where it started.
      • Hinder a foe. Spend your action to give your opponent disadvantage (roll twice; pick lowest) on their next action. You must roll at least a 10 with your skill of choice to successfully hinder.
      • Help a friend. Spend your action to give your friend advantage (roll twice; pick highest) on their next action. You must roll at least a 10 with your skill of choice to successfully help.
      • Something else. You can be creative.
  • Pass the turn to the next person, and continue going in circles.

A natural 20 or critical hit counts as hitting twice. A natural 1 or critical miss always misses.

Whoever is hit thrice, loses.

Thralls in PvP

In mechanical PvP, all present thralls can engage in combat. The same is true for dice-based PvP. Thralls act on the same turn as the player controlling them. This expedites matters. If you want a ‘fairer’ outcome, you can demand that they be assigned their own turns.

Similarly, for expediency’s sake, you are discouraged from writing full emotes for thralls during dice-based PvP. You can synchronise preferences in this matter with your sparring partners.

Thralls, like player characters, have statistics, but heavily simplified.

Fighter and archer thralls have the following characteristics:

  • +3 Melee, +3 Ranged Weapons, +3 Acrobatics, and +3 Parry.
  • +0 in everything else, attributes and skills alike.
  • Melee and ranged defence using the same calculation as player characters: 9 (no armour), 12 (light armour), 13 (medium armour), and 15 (heavy armour). They also get penalties from wearing medium and heavy armour.
  • They go down after two hits.

Combat pets are considered fighter thralls. You may choose an armour weight appropriate for them.

All other thralls have the following characteristics:

  • +3 in one relevant skill that isn’t Melee, Ranged Weapons, or Parry.
  • +0 in everything else, attributes and skills alike.
  • Melee and ranged defence using the same calculation as player characters: 6 (no armour), 9 (light armour), 10 (medium armour), and 12 (heavy armour). They also get penalties from wearing medium and heavy armour.
  • They go down after one hit.

Last updated 12 Sep 2026, 13:07 +0200. history