Attributes
The default attributes in Platforms are:

• Jump
  Your character's jumping ability. The default score is 3 and allows your character to jump 3 pixels up or across. You only have to roll your Jump attribute when jumping over a wall that is higher than you or when you are engaged by a hostile baddie. Some plug-ins feature falling damage - characters can safely fall a distance equal to their height or their Jump attribute (whichever is higher).
• Attack
  Your character's fighting ability. The default score is 3 and represents a maximum of 3 attacks per turn.
• Life
  The number of times your character can die without the game ending. The default score is 3.

Bonuses
The default bonus is 3. You may add up to 3 points to any one attribute or divide those 3 points between two or three attributes.

Special
Special attributes that are used in plug-ins for Platforms. They usually replace a normal attribute (such as Speed replacing Jump in a spaceship game) or give the character a special feature (such as the ability to pick up enemies and use them as weapons). Other special additions may include attack power meters (to allow for variable attack damage), ammo counters (to keep track of shots) or life meters (that will degrade over time as you take damage).

Actions
During your turn you can Attack, Jump (over an obstacle), Run or a combination of any two of these things (if you are not Running then you are assumed to be Walking).

Range
Range determines how far a ranged attack can travel, as well as how long it takes your character to run through the screen. There are three ranges. Touch, Near, Mid and Far. "Touch" means that your character must touch the baddie in order to attack it (or in some cases, touch the item in order to use it...like a teleport pad or a device's button). Near attacks cover a small distance (about 1/4 of the screen). Mid-range attacks reach the middle of the screen. Far attacks can hit anything on the screen! When your character is running, only use Near, Mid and Far to determine how much ground is covered -- a walking character will take 4 turns (4 Nears) to walk across the screen. A running or jumping character will take 2 turns (2 Mids) to run across the screen.

Attacking
Attacking means trying to hit a baddie with an attack (either a Touch attack, like a punch or a club, or a Ranged attack, like a whip or a fireball). Roll your Attack attribute when trying to hit a baddie.

Jumping
Jumping allows your character to move over obstacles, such as pits, walls, spikes or pools of lava. Roll your Jump attribute when trying to jump past or over an obstacle.

Multiple Actions
Attacking while running is tough -- it will enable you to close distances more quickly, but will reduce your Attack attribute by 2 dice. Jumping while running will allow you to double the pixels you can jump (the attribute remains the same) but you cannot attack that turn. You can Attack and Jump while walking during the a turn without penalties.

Dice
When you perform an action (usually jumping or attacking), roll your a six-sided die for each point in the appropriate attribute.

• 1, 2 are bad dice!
• 4, 5, 6 are good dice!

Bad Dice subtract from your Good Dice. The more Good Dice you roll, the better you do (you either jump farther or kill more baddies). For every Good Die past the first, you can jump +1 pixel or hit +1 baddie. Zero Good Dice means that you don't score any hits or you cannot jump extra distance. If your highest Good Die is LESS than the total of your Bad Dice, you lose a life.

Difficulty Modes

• "Easy" difficulty: Only a 1 is bad die! Piece of cake!
• "Hard" difficulty: 1, 2, and 3 are bad dice! Pretty tough!
• "Super Hard" difficulty: 1, 2, 3 and 4 are bad dice! Oh no!

Losing Lives
When you begin the game, your Life attribute drops by one point. Whenever you lose a life, you will start at the beginning of the level minus any Power-ups in your character's possession and your Life attribute will drop again by one point. If your Life is at 0, you are on your last life. Losing your last life will end the game for your character. Reaching a Checkpoint will allow you to restart at that Checkpoint rather than at the start of the level. Also, if your character has an Inventory, Power-up items will not be lost.

Pixels
Pixels are the standard unit of measurement in Platforms. Because the playing field is supposed to represent the surface of a television screen or video monitor, there are only two-dimensions: up/down and left/right. For comparison, most characters are 3 pixels in height and 1 pixel wide.

Screens
A screen is a section of a level and is represented by a sheet of paper (the screen is the drawn onto the paper). Screens contain platforms, obstacles, hazards, baddies, scenery and anything else that you can dream up!

Levels
Levels is the term given to a collection of screens (usually between 3 and 5). Finishing a level will net you points based upon your performance in that level (usually based on baddies killed, Power-ups acquired and treasure found).

Obstacles
Obstacles are barriers or other problematic areas of a screen that will prevent you from just strolling through. Obstacles include: walls, traps, baddies, puzzles and hazards.

Walls
The simplest and least hazardous obstacle, a Wall must be jumped over or otherwise surmounted (such as climbing up a ladder, flying over it or using special boot Power-ups to climb up the side).

Traps
Some traps are non-lethal, such as cages that will trap your character for a turn. Others are annoyances that may prove hazardous, such as a moving platform or a rope bridge that will collapse unless run across.

Hazards
Hazards are lethal traps, meaning that they inflict damage (such as a flame jet) or cause you to automatically lose a life (such as bottomless pits).

Baddies
Baddies are the enemies that your character will face during the game. They can either be attacked or avoided. Attacking and killing a baddie will earn you points (and possibly Power-ups as well!). Avoiding a group of baddies means that you have successfully run and jumped your way past them.

Baddies have their own special attributes:

• Health
  Health is how many successful hits it takes to kill the baddie. Most baddies have a Health of 1.
• Sight
  Sight represents the range at which the baddie will become hostile toward your character. Some are fast and vicious and will attack on sight. Others are quiet and shy and will only attack if harassed. Sight is either Touch (meaning you have to touch or attack the baddie for it to become hostile), Near, Mid or Far. Once a baddie has seen your character, it must be fought or avoided (successfully!) or else you will lose a life. Stationary baddies will cease to be hostile if you move out of range (although some may not!).
• Special
  Baddies are quite varied and most will have some kind of special ability. Some baddies can fly or float, others have protective shells or ranged attacks. Some will follow your character to another screen if they aren't killed. Many of these abilities are covered in the Power-ups sections. Others are basic enough not to warrant much of an explanation.

Special baddies (Bosses and mini-Bosses) are usually found at the last screen of a level. They are quite large and tough and they usually have special attacks (the Boss ignores your highest Good Die when totaling your Bad Dice), defenses (you need to score 3 Good Dice at once to kill it) and weaknesses (the Boss can only be killed with cold attacks). Bosses always have at least 3 Health and usually possess Far Sight. They are usually at least twice as large as the characters. Bosses and mini-Bosses cannot be avoided and must be fought.

Time Limits
The default Time Limit is 30 turns. Place 30 stones on the table (or on a flat surface wherever you are playing). Whenever you take a turn, take a stone from the pile. If you haven't cleared the level before the stones are all gone, your time has run out and you will lose a life. If you are playing with others, the first person to go is in charge of removing the stones and clearing all stones will cause each player's character to lose a life. The Time Limit is reset once the level has been cleared.

Power-ups
Power-ups are goodies that will appear during the game. Sometimes they are hidden, other times they are right out in the open (or they'll appear when a baddie is killed). Power-ups usually enhance an attribute or grant you a special ability. Some example Power-ups are:

Jump Power-ups

• Temporarily double your Jump attribute (until life is lost)
• Character takes no damage from a fall (one-time use)

Attack Power-ups

• Gain new weapon with special features
• Temporarily double your Attack attribute
• Increase weapon damage (useful against mini-Bosses and Bosses)
• Increase range of weapon
• Add special attack feature (freezing, fire, area damage)
• Automatically kill any non-Boss baddie by moving past them

Life Power-ups

• Cannot be damaged by baddies or hazards for three turns (can still fall into pits!)
• Prevent loss of life from one attack
• Add a one-point bonus to your character's Life attribute for this level

Special Power-ups

• Invisibility - Baddies will not attack you if you move within Sight range
• Growth - Gain size, Jump bonus, damage reduction, etc.
• Armor - Rather than lose a life, you Armor is reduced by one point until it's destroyed
• Flight - Gain ability to fly around
• Transform - Change character's shape to gain special new abilities
• Treasure - adds to score
• Credits - used to buy Power-ups or increase attributes in games with "Shops"

Score
You increase your score by finishing the level, killing baddies and finding Power-ups and treasure. A good rule of thumb is to have each baddie be worth 100 points and add 50 points per special ability they have. Killing multiple baddies with a single roll is a noteworthy action and should be rewarded - double the point value for every consecutive baddie killed in a single attack.