Confused? Maybe this alphabetically ordered walkthrough will help! :D
Accuracy
Accuracy is the precision of an attack and determines its percentage effectivity. Attack points are multiplied by the accuracy percentage (determined by a dice roll, then applied modifiers), and the result rounded up. Let's say the monster attacks with 50 points, then rolls 65% accuracy. 50 x .65 = 32.5. The final attack points are then 33.
Attack Points / AP Distribution
Attack Points indicate by how many points your enemy's Defense decreases when you attack them. Your AP is influenced by critical hit chance, conditional strengths/weaknesses, and accuracy. If you are fighting more than one enemy, based on the location of each character, your attack will be broken into percentages distributed across all the opponents (so, the one in the very front receives 80% of your attack, while the small one far away is hit by 20%). This is called AP Distribution.
Conditional Strengths/Weaknesses
Set apart from permanent strengths and weaknesses found beneath each stat, conditional strengths and weaknesses have a *probability* of occurring beneath 100%, meaning they may or may not occur, while permanent strengths and weaknesses have a 100% chance of happening.
Critical Hits
Everyone has a basic critical hit chance of 0-5%, determined by a 1d100 roll. If the roll is 95-100, anyone has thus automatically scored a critical hit. Critical hit chances increase with experience in PCs and vary largely among NPCs. If a character has more than one critical hit attack, the likelihood of each attack having happened is evenly distributed, and determined by another roll. For example, if a monster has a 25% critical hit chance and 2 critical hit attacks, it will assign the first attack with 1-50 and the other with 51-100, then roll 2d100. The first roll indicates whether the hit was critical, and the second roll determines whether the first or second attack occurred. If the monster rolled a 51-100, it was the second attack; if 1-50, it was the first.
Defense Points
Defense Points are a character's health points. When attacked, they lose as much DP as their attack is strong. However, at the beginning of their turn, a character's health is restored by 10% (not of their original DP, of their current DP). Upon reaching 0 DP a character is considered incapacitated and/or unfit for battle and may choose to remove themselves to recover. Monsters and NPCs can and will do this just as much as PCs! Upon reaching negative DP, the character is considered dead, but negative DP can only be reached when attacked with 0 DP. That is, if your DP is higher than 0, the minimum DP you'll drop to remains 0 until you hit 0 and choose to continue battling.
Experience
Experience is the overall skill a PC or allied NPC possesses. Enemies' experience is indicated by their Level. Experience does not actually affect the stats directly, but as experience is gained, stats do increase. How depends entirely on the manner in which the experience was attained! The way you roleplay reflects the skills your character emphasizes in combat, and these will increase the more you use and develop them. Experience is also a simple way of letting you know OOC how much control and understanding your character has over and of his/her skills. It also helps compare the general capabilities of opposing factions in combat. Regardless of character history, everyone starts out as a Novice! The ranks continue in this order:
Novice - Proficient - Intermediate - Adept - Master - Virtuoso - Fabled - Heroic.
Modifier
A modifier is something about a character, their opponent or their surroundings that affects the character's interaction with others and thus performance in activities such as battle. Modifiers are quantitatively expressed as states, further divided into permanent and conditional strengths and weaknesses. A list of total modifiers, including neutral modifiers which may not be involved in stats if they cancel out, can be found underneath every character's stats.
Reinforcement
Reinforcements are actions that a character can make to positively affect an ally of theirs, including themselves, potentially indirectly harming the enemy – such as enchanting a sword or warding an ally with a protective shield. Reinforcements cannot directly harm an enemy – that would classify an action as an attack.
Round
One round of battle is when everyone including the enemy has had a turn.
Statistics
Statistics, or stats, are a character's attributes expressed quantitatively, that is, numerically. Qualitative attributes would be, for instance, John cannot see in the dark. A statistic would be a –5 defense penalty on John's character during a battle that takes place in the dark or dim light. Among a character's primary stats are attack points (AP), defense points (DP), and accuracy. Not everyone has the same stats, but everyone has those.
Turn
A turn in battle is when one character has passed through the action sequences available to them and can no longer do anything, thereby ending their turn.