The following serves as a guide for how the Stat system works, for those curious about the mechanics. Players are NOT required to read or understand this system, and it may be tweaked or supplemented as needed to keep it balanced. If you have any questions, concerns, or critiques, please feel free to post on the OOC board or email me.

Stats help to frame a character's strengths and weaknesses, with higher numbers reflecting greater skill in a given category. Stats range between 1 - 30, with different species having a specific range of numbers they fall into. Each number from 1 and upwards earns a character a +0.25 modifier to their designated Stat.

Characters that are joined will be given a set of Stats fitting their species and weight, while characters born on the site will have Stats influenced by their parents. Active characters will also have chances at boosting their Stats periodically, through fights, Events, or simply through role-playing.

Strength:
- Determines how much damage force-type injuries cause (Biting, striking, ramming, ect). Also determines strength based feats (shoving, pinning, maintain bites/holds on other characters). Animals like bears, moose, and horses have the highest range for Strength, while animals like birds, small felines and canines, and most humans have the lowest.

Dexterity:
- Determines whether attacks hit, and how much damage dexterity-type injuries cause. (Slashing with claws, beaks, aiming a gun). Animals like birds, cats, and most humans have the highest Dexterity, while animals such as bears, horses, and large canines having the lowest.

Health/Stamina:
- Overall health and durability. Every character will have a set amount of Health, with larger characters generally having more than smaller characters. Health can be depleted by taking injury (such as during fights), or becoming ill, but generally only comes into play during fights where the Stat system is being used.

- Regardless of the outcome of a fight, no character can be killed against their player's wishes. If your character reaches 0 Health during a fight/Event, you can decide whether they die or are rendered near enough to death that they appear to be dead. If this happens, the character will have a -5 penalty to their Strength and Dexterity for one month while they recover, and a 50% reduction in Health.

- If a character looses half or more of their Health during a fight, the will have a -3 penalty to their Strength and Dexterity for one month and a 25% reduction in Health while they recover.

Charisma:
- Used when interacting with NPCs. A character's ability to charm, deceit, intimidate, ect an NPC to their advantage.

Armor Class (AC):
- How easily a creature can be injured. A creature's Dexterity, age, size, and species can factor into this. Smaller creatures like birds and rodents, and naturally agile species like felines, have higher AC. Humans are the only species that can actively modify their AC by wearing protective clothing.

Micro
(creatures under 0.2 oz; most mice, smaller songbirds, ect)

Tiny
(creatures between 0.21 - 1 lb, most small rodents, songbirds, ect)

Extra Small
(creatures between 1.1 - 5 lbs)

Small
(creatures between 5.1 - 29 lbs)

Medium
(canines above 30 lbs, most deer, humans, ponies, ect)

Large
(black bears, moose, felines over 200 lbs, ect)

Giant
(grizzly & polar bears, elephants, whales, ect)

A creature gets a +3 Strength/Damage bonus for each size larger it is than it's opponent. A Small creature would have a +3 advantage on an Extra Small creature, and a Medium creature would have a +6 advantage on an Extra Small creature. This helps to scale fights between creatures of massively different sizes (such as a toy poodle versus a wolf).

- To determine whether a character successfully hit their opponent, a Number Randomizer (or a 20-sided dice) is used. The appropriate modifier (rounded down) is then added to that number to give a final result. If the final number matches or surpasses the target's AC to hit, the hit is successful. So a character with a Dexterity of 6 (giving them a +1.25 to their Dexterity) would get a +1 added to every attack roll.

- Calculating damage is done the same way, but with no rounding down on modifiers.

- A character can attempt to 'grapple/pin/restrain' another character. The success or failure of a grapple attempt is based on the contenders' Strength or Dexterity, depending on the situation.

- Other characters have advantage on attacking any character that is restrained.

- The character actively grappling cannot attack while maintaining their hold, and the character being grappled has disadvantage on their attacks.

- Having 'Advantage' means that the dice are rolled twice during an attack, and the highest number is taken. Having disadvantage means the lower of the two numbers is used.

- Canines have Advantage on any attack where a packmate is attacking the same target.

- Being creative and using the environment during fights/Events can aid your character, potentially giving them Advantage, or imposing Disadvantage on enemies. Environmental factors such as thorn bushes or drops from high places can cause additional damage to one's enemies.

- A character can attempt to cause critical injuries (such as breaking bones) to an opponent, but will only be successful if they score high enough on their attack roll. Some species, and characters with particularly high Strength/Dexterity, have a higher chance of causing critical injuries.

- Depending on the circumstances and the species, most characters are afforded one or two attacks per post. One with their teeth/horns/antlers, and one with their claws/hooves.

- When a character reaches old age, they receive a -1 to their AC, Strength, and Dexterity. This penalty accumulates at varying rates (depending on species).

- Young creatures have similarly low AC and base stats, depending on their species. All young creatures can be considered mature after three months real time, unless the player wishes to continue playing them as an adolescent (in this case, please let me know on the Updates board when you wish to mature them).

Old Age

Canines under 20 pounds: 12 Years
Canines under 80 pounds: 11 Years
Canines at or over 80 pounds: 10 Years
Felines under 20 pounds: 14 Years
Felines under 80 pounds: 13 Years
Felines at or over 80 pounds: 12 Years
Horses: 18 Years
Racoons: 12 Years
Raptors: 13 Years