What you do on your turn

The four pieces

Most turns in the current edition of the world’s most common fantasy game break into four ideas. You can use them in any order, and you can skip any of them.

• Movement. You can walk up to your speed, often 30 feet, which is about six squares if you are using a grid. You can split the walking around your action: step up, swing, step back.
• An action. The main thing you do. Attack, cast a spell, dash to move farther, hide, help a friend, or use an object that takes real effort.
• A bonus action. A smaller extra, and only if something on your sheet says you have one. Two-weapon fighting and some spells offer a bonus action. If nothing on your sheet mentions one, you do not have a bonus action this turn. You never get two.
• A reaction. This is not part of your turn. It is a single response you can take later, usually on someone else’s turn, such as a swing at a creature that walks away from you. Once you use it, it is gone until your next turn starts.

You also get one free interaction with the world on your turn, such as drawing a weapon or opening an unlocked door. A second object usually costs the action.

When somebody asks you to roll

There are three common rolls, and they are not the same thing.

• A check is an attempt: climb, persuade, recall a fact, sneak. Roll a d20, add the matching ability, and sometimes add your training if the sheet says you are proficient.
• An attack is a swing or a shot. Roll a d20, add the attack bonus printed on the weapon or spell, and compare it with the target’s armor class. Meeting the number hits.
• A save is resisting something that already happened: a blast, a poison, a spell. Roll a d20 and add the save listed for that ability. You are trying to reach a number the GM, or the spell, announced.

Advantage means you roll two d20s and keep the higher. Disadvantage means you keep the lower. They cancel if you have both.

On the character sheet in Roll and Lore Screen, the ability cards, saving throws and skills are buttons. Clicking one rolls the d20 on the page and shows the total with your modifier already included. You do not have to add it in your head.

What to say when you are stuck

Say what you want, not the rule you are hunting for. “I stay low and move to the door.” “I try to pin him.” “I drink the potion.” The person running the game will tell you if that costs movement, an action, or both.

A useful first-night limit: one attack or one spell, then a short move, then you are done. Bonus actions and reactions can wait until a second session. Nothing breaks if you forget them. The fight just goes a little more slowly, which is easier to follow.

If a condition lands on you — frightened, poisoned, prone — ask for the one-sentence effect and write it on the sheet or tell the GM to mark it on the initiative tracker. The combat guide lists the ones that show up most often.

You can do nothing fancy

Dodge, help a friend, or hide are complete actions. A turn spent getting a wounded character out of the doorway is often the turn the table remembers. You are not scored on how many features you triggered.