You know you want to read these rules. It'll only take 5 minutes.
Life, Death, and the Universe in general (pretty important, and this is the cool part)
In Crystalbreaker, you have health and mana as your two resources. If you run out of health, you die. You take damage to health in ways such as falling large distances, drowning, taking damage from other people's attacks, listening to Soulja Boy, etc. You "take damage" to mana by casting spells, being hit by other attacks that reduce your mana, listening to Soulja Boy, etc. You can heal mana and health both by drinking potions or being healed by spells or by being bandaged for your health.
So when you run out of health and you're dead in other RPGs, you're basically like, oh, I'm dead. Cool. I'm going to make a new character. Bye. But not in this game. When you run out of health in this game, your physical body dies, but your soul survives and is now measured in mana. While you're dead, you still take damage to mana in the same ways as said before. However, all damage to taken to mana is halved and you are invisible.
If you suck so much that you run out of mana AND health, you're put into your crystal form. Basically, everyone in this world has a crystal that contains their consciousness and lives forever (unless it's broken) and physical bodies are shells. This crystal (your soul, basically) can be moved between bodies. But only a very small fraction of everyone in the world actually knows that, so most people form beliefs about afterlives and things like that. Those who do know the secret, the Crystalborn, have a realization that makes them extremely intelligent compared to other people and they are treated like gods, even though they simply know that there is a crystal that contains everyone's essence. These Crystalborn can switch between bodies (what they view as shells), and they are the only ones that can manifest themselves as living crystals with arms, legs, a head, etc.
If you shatter someone's crystal, what they become when all of their mana and health is sucked out (which doesn't happen very regularly unless someone's trying to murder you and your soul), it is considered the ultimate act of crime against the universe by anyone who knows about the crystals. To end someone's life and soul entirely is true murder.
S0, if you're really evil, you'll hit someone with a sword until their health runs out, then hit them with a spell that damages mana until their mana runs out, then use the crystalbreaking spell (which is hard to learn and very powerful) until their soul dies.
On a different note...
GM and Players
Well, if you've never played an RPG (which many people haven't) this is the general premise of it. You have one GM, or Game master. The rest of the people are players. Usually there are five or six people all together, meaning there is the Game Master and the four or five players. So the Game Master sets up everything. He also controls the monsters or enemies. He prompts people to make checks if they're trying to do something, fighting or making a skill check or whatever else they can think of. Each player controls a character who is classified by race, class, and vocation. Everything we've been talking about so far. So in short, the GM runs the adventure that the characters play in. Simple as that. For a more in-depth description for classy people, go here.
The General Overview and stuff
Basically, all the skills allow you to be better at anything from swinging a sword and swimming to casting a magic spell and reading a book in a language no one has even heard of, let alone translated, for the past thousand years. These are the skills: Stamina, Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Spirit. All skills are used in some powers or abilities, in addition to the following things:
STAMINA governs doing physical exerting things for a long time, the ability to take more physical damage (an important and generally dangerous activity), and increases your health.
STRENGTH governs lifting moving heavy things, doing damage with heavy melee weapons, and athletics such as climbing and swimming. It is used for most hand-to-hand combat.
DEXTERITY governs proficiency with ranged weapons, being agile in general, and dodging.
INTELLECT governs mentally exerting yourself, such as through a test of history or knowledge, and the ability to take more mana damage. It also increases your mana capacity.
SPIRIT governs your social abilities, such as intimidating, bluffing, charming, and things like that. It also increases the power of most of your magic spells, making it useful for all casters. It may reduce the mana cost of some spells as well.
STAMINA governs doing physical exerting things for a long time, the ability to take more physical damage (an important and generally dangerous activity), and increases your health.
STRENGTH governs lifting moving heavy things, doing damage with heavy melee weapons, and athletics such as climbing and swimming. It is used for most hand-to-hand combat.
DEXTERITY governs proficiency with ranged weapons, being agile in general, and dodging.
INTELLECT governs mentally exerting yourself, such as through a test of history or knowledge, and the ability to take more mana damage. It also increases your mana capacity.
SPIRIT governs your social abilities, such as intimidating, bluffing, charming, and things like that. It also increases the power of most of your magic spells, making it useful for all casters. It may reduce the mana cost of some spells as well.
Main Rules
Your health is determined by stamina plus level times two. If that's complicated, say your stamina is 2 and your level is 5, equaling seven. Then you multiply it all by two, meaning you have 14 hit points.
Your mana is determined by intellect plus level.
The damage of a melee weapon is determined by strength plus the damage roll for the weapon.
The damage of a ranged weapon is determined by dexterity plus the damage roll for the weapon. In some circumstances it may be modified by strength, but not for the most part.
The damage of a magic attack is specified in the attack.
The healing or effect of some other power or ability is specified in the ability.
Your mana is determined by intellect plus level.
The damage of a melee weapon is determined by strength plus the damage roll for the weapon.
The damage of a ranged weapon is determined by dexterity plus the damage roll for the weapon. In some circumstances it may be modified by strength, but not for the most part.
The damage of a magic attack is specified in the attack.
The healing or effect of some other power or ability is specified in the ability.
How to make a skill check
Basically, whenever you make a skill check (which obviously is a large part of the game) you add your roll of a d10 to your attribute.
Say you're climbing a mountain, and the check needed is 24 to climb the first 1000 feet for example. Since climbing falls under strength, if your strength is below 14, it will be impossible to climb it. But say your strength is 16. You would need to roll an 8 or higher to climb the mountain, because you add your role of a d10 to your skill that encompasses the action you are trying to do. If you roll slightly lower than 8, your GM (Game Master) can make allowances and only let you climb 500 feet. Or, if you roll really low and still decide to climb, your character could climb 250 feet before falling and dying (ouch).
Another example is if you are trying to decode something.
Decoding falls under intellect. Say you need a check of 12 to decode a message. If your intellect is below 2, you can't make it. Also, you're rather dumb. So let's say you have an intellect of 6. You need to roll a 6 or higher to decode it. If you roll slightly lower than that, your GM can make allowances and maybe you only decode part of the message.
Say you're climbing a mountain, and the check needed is 24 to climb the first 1000 feet for example. Since climbing falls under strength, if your strength is below 14, it will be impossible to climb it. But say your strength is 16. You would need to roll an 8 or higher to climb the mountain, because you add your role of a d10 to your skill that encompasses the action you are trying to do. If you roll slightly lower than 8, your GM (Game Master) can make allowances and only let you climb 500 feet. Or, if you roll really low and still decide to climb, your character could climb 250 feet before falling and dying (ouch).
Another example is if you are trying to decode something.
Decoding falls under intellect. Say you need a check of 12 to decode a message. If your intellect is below 2, you can't make it. Also, you're rather dumb. So let's say you have an intellect of 6. You need to roll a 6 or higher to decode it. If you roll slightly lower than that, your GM can make allowances and maybe you only decode part of the message.
What skills fall under
Add your roll of a d10 to your skill to see if you can pass the target point, as discussed in "How to make a skill check".
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some skills may fall under two or possibly even three attributes. In this case, you add all the attributes together plus a roll of the d10, meaning that it may seem relatively absurdly high to climb something. This is just how its measured though, and it is not to scale.
SLIGHTLY LESS IMPORTANT NOTE: These things are only things you need to make skill checks on.
STAMINA: Swimming, Climbing, Fighting fatigue
STRENGTH: Swimming, Climbing, Brute force checks (breaking open doors and things like that) and other athletics
DEXTERITY: Thievery, Sneaking, Acrobatics, General sleight of hand
INTELLECT: History, Knowledge of the arcane, Nature, Knowledge of Religion, Exploration
SPIRIT: Intimidating, Diplomacy, Charming, Exploration, Dungeoneering, Crystal usage, Nature, etc.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some skills may fall under two or possibly even three attributes. In this case, you add all the attributes together plus a roll of the d10, meaning that it may seem relatively absurdly high to climb something. This is just how its measured though, and it is not to scale.
SLIGHTLY LESS IMPORTANT NOTE: These things are only things you need to make skill checks on.
STAMINA: Swimming, Climbing, Fighting fatigue
STRENGTH: Swimming, Climbing, Brute force checks (breaking open doors and things like that) and other athletics
DEXTERITY: Thievery, Sneaking, Acrobatics, General sleight of hand
INTELLECT: History, Knowledge of the arcane, Nature, Knowledge of Religion, Exploration
SPIRIT: Intimidating, Diplomacy, Charming, Exploration, Dungeoneering, Crystal usage, Nature, etc.
Skills that may be unclear
Knowledge of the arcane - This governs your knowledge of magic. For instance, if an enemy throws a fireball at you and you have no knowledge of the arcane, you'll say "He just threw a shiny rock at me!" or something to that effect. If you have a high knowledge of the arcane, you will say "He just threw a fireball at me!"
Nature - This governs your ability to discern things in nature, or just plain know things in nature around you. For instance, if there is a tree and someone asks you What is that tree? and you have a high nature skill, you will say "Well, that obviously is the yellow-tinged variant of the white oak, known for its medicinal properties" or something along those lines.
Knowledge of Religion - The same as knowledge of the arcane, except more obsolete and involving religion instead of magic.
Exploration - This governs a couple different things. One is the ability to sketch an accurate map. If you make a check to sketch a map and you have a bad Exploration roll, you'll probably sketch a few lines and follow them until you trip over a rock and fall off a mountain to your painful death. If you have a good skill in exploration, you'll draw a perfectly decent map and be able to go about the area for the rest of your life.
Another thing you can do with exploration is not get lost when going into a place you've never been, which is most of the time. When faced with the decision to turn left or right, you may make a bad decision that leads to your death with a bad exploration check. Your GM decides which way is good and what the decision is for the check to be good.
Charming - Intimidating and Diplomacy are both pretty obvious, so I'll skip to charming. Charming is basically a subset of diplomacy, like intimidating, except it is the opposite of intimidating in that intimidating is mean and charming isn't. Diplomacy is a neutral way of convincing people to say your way. It may sometimes seem to be a bit above the law, however, because bribing would usually fall under diplomacy. If you're trying to extort someone, your GM may set a high skill check and ask you to add your diplomacy and intimidating rolls together.
Dungeoneering - This is the knowledge and skill associated with walking into any cave, dungeon, cultists' temple, dragon temple, or any other possible enclosed area with enemies in it you can possibly think of. Let's say a person with a low Spirit and therefore low dungeoneering skill walks into a cave. He notices a lot of things, albeit useless ones, about this cave: it is made out of stone, and it is dark. He walks forwards, failing to notice that there is a pit trap in the middle of the floor. He trips into the badly concealed trap and falls to his death.
Now let's say an adventurer of great Spirit walks into that same cave.
She walks through the entrance and notices that this cave is made out of stone, and is dark. She also notices that there is a pit trap. She calmly walks around it and starts searching for a safe entrance into the next room.
Nature - This governs your ability to discern things in nature, or just plain know things in nature around you. For instance, if there is a tree and someone asks you What is that tree? and you have a high nature skill, you will say "Well, that obviously is the yellow-tinged variant of the white oak, known for its medicinal properties" or something along those lines.
Knowledge of Religion - The same as knowledge of the arcane, except more obsolete and involving religion instead of magic.
Exploration - This governs a couple different things. One is the ability to sketch an accurate map. If you make a check to sketch a map and you have a bad Exploration roll, you'll probably sketch a few lines and follow them until you trip over a rock and fall off a mountain to your painful death. If you have a good skill in exploration, you'll draw a perfectly decent map and be able to go about the area for the rest of your life.
Another thing you can do with exploration is not get lost when going into a place you've never been, which is most of the time. When faced with the decision to turn left or right, you may make a bad decision that leads to your death with a bad exploration check. Your GM decides which way is good and what the decision is for the check to be good.
Charming - Intimidating and Diplomacy are both pretty obvious, so I'll skip to charming. Charming is basically a subset of diplomacy, like intimidating, except it is the opposite of intimidating in that intimidating is mean and charming isn't. Diplomacy is a neutral way of convincing people to say your way. It may sometimes seem to be a bit above the law, however, because bribing would usually fall under diplomacy. If you're trying to extort someone, your GM may set a high skill check and ask you to add your diplomacy and intimidating rolls together.
Dungeoneering - This is the knowledge and skill associated with walking into any cave, dungeon, cultists' temple, dragon temple, or any other possible enclosed area with enemies in it you can possibly think of. Let's say a person with a low Spirit and therefore low dungeoneering skill walks into a cave. He notices a lot of things, albeit useless ones, about this cave: it is made out of stone, and it is dark. He walks forwards, failing to notice that there is a pit trap in the middle of the floor. He trips into the badly concealed trap and falls to his death.
Now let's say an adventurer of great Spirit walks into that same cave.
She walks through the entrance and notices that this cave is made out of stone, and is dark. She also notices that there is a pit trap. She calmly walks around it and starts searching for a safe entrance into the next room.