So, this is not a Fantasy Heartbreaker™ however it does share a lot of the same DNA. I don't expect this game to sell, or take the world by storm, or anything like that.
During one of the many lockdowns/stay at home orders/whatever you call them, I wanted to play D&D. I had also just moved across the globe after many years away. I put the call out for anyone who wanted to play, and many people who volunteered had never played before. I didn't really want to waste time with trying to get people to learn the entirety of 5E (which people inevitably do) or get scared off by a large rulebook, so I wrote a game that would be pretty easy to grok by anyone who hadn't played RPGs before, but still contain the things people expect from popular culture: twenty sided dice, critical hits, and bards. Also I wanted it to be quick and easy to learn, and not need too much math.
I hope I did that, and here's my first sort of stab at it. (This is just the player-facing stuff, the GM stuff resides in my head for now).
Credit for Colour Images: Isabella McGregor
WELCOME TO THIS GAME
This game is a lot like Dungeons and
Dragons, or really many other roleplaying games. So, if you’ve played one of
them before you can probably skim this whole thing and make it up as you go
along more or less. In this game you take the character of a rough and tumble
adventurer exploring strange places, discovering long forgotten temples,
plundering priceless cultural artifacts, and generally being adventurous. There is one player called the GM who will lay out the world and the non-player people (they are likely the one who wrote this).
STATS
These are important numbers telling you how strong, or swift, or smart, or sexy you are. They’re used for a bunch of things. There are four of them. Want more? Go play some other more complicated game!
STRENGTH: How strong you are, also your starting health. You can carry as many items with weight as you have strength and still move about. If you carry more, you move slowly and can’t do much. If you have more than twice this number, you can’t lift it at all
DEXTERITY: This is how nimble and agile you are. This is the number that something will have to beat to hit you with a sword or something.
INTELLIGENCE: This is how smart you are, and how much you notice. This is the number that something sneaky will have to beat to hide from you. It is also your health if something attacks you with mind-powers.
CHARM: This is your force of personality, if it is a higher number people are more likely to be positively disposed towards you. It’s also the number to hit you with a magic spell or mind powers.
“How do I find these thing out?” I hear you cry. That’s easy! Roll three six sided dice, and there you have one of your numbers. Do this four times, and you have all of your numbers.
BONUS
These are a bonus you add to your twenty sided dice roll when attacking or doing something with a skill or the like. Take your stat number and divide it by four (rounding down) and you have your bonus![1]
CLASS
This sort of tells you what special powers and things you have in the game. There are five roles.
FIGHTER
You are the best at fighting. You can use as many points of armour as you like, and all weapons except the battleaxe. You also get a double dodge bonus when using a shield. You add your level bonus to all your attack rolls. You keep your bonus when fighting with a weapon in each hand. When you hit, you can roll your weapon damage twice and keep the best result. Every time you level up you get to add four (4) points of health.
THIEF
You are sneaky and can pick locks. You add your level bonus to your attack rolls when using light or small weapons. You can wear up to your level in points of armour. You keep your bonus when fighting with a weapons in both hands if at least one of them is small. If you attack a creature unawares, or one already fighting someone else, you get extra damage equal to your level. To pick a lock or to sneak you add your Dexterity bonus and your level to a roll of a twenty sided die. Every time you level up you get to add three (3) points of health.
BARBARIAN
You are big and strong and tough. You cannot use any kind of armour, it is for weak city folk after all. However, you always reduce physical damage done to you by one. You cannot use any ranged weapon save a throwing spear, as to fight at range is a sign of cowardice. You can use all melee weapons, especially the battleaxe and add your level bonus to all your attack rolls. You keep your level bonus even when fighting with a weapon in each hand. You can spend your health points to change the number of any physical dice roll, and if you move the number up to a 20 it counts as a critical success, and if you spend them on damage you can take the number above the maximum roll. If you are at zero health points, you can continue to act until you drop dead at -10 hit points, whilst acting in this sate you have as many attacks as you have levels each round, can use a two-handed weapon in each hand, and add your Strength bonus to all damage rolls. Every time you level up you get to add five (5) points of health.
BARD
You are a magic weaver of tales and Master of Lore. You add your level bonus to your attack rolls when using small, light or medium weapons. You can wear up to your level in points of armour. You have a pool of healing every day equal to your Charm Stat plus your level (you can give any amount of this to anyone as an action, including yourself). Bards know a lot of stories and secrets of the world, and you can be expected to know most living languages. Every time you level up you get to add two (2) points of health, and one (1) magic point. You start knowing how to enchant humans, every time you level up you learn one (1) new level of Bard Magic.
WIZARD
You are a weaver of magic and master of the arcane. You add your level bonus to your attack rolls when using small weapons. You can wear up to half your level (rounded down) in points of armour. Wizards are big nerds who know far too much, and you can be expected to know most dead languages and most of the mystical living ones. Wizards can also store spells in scrolls and try to summon demons. Every time you level up you get to add one (1) point of health, and two (2) magic points. You start with a spellbook to write down spells in and knowing control over one (1) element, every time you level up you learn control over one (1) new element.
TYPES OF WEAPONS
There are essentially infinite types of weapons, but they really boil down to these ones
Small weapons: Slings, knives, broken bottles, etc. Do 1d4 Damage
Light weapons: Short swords, bows, axes, clubs, etc. Do 1d6 Damage
Medium weapons: Longswords, longbows, pikes, crossbows, etc. Do 1d8 Damage
Heavy weapons: Zweihanders, warhammers, etc. Need two hands, do 1d10 Damage
Battleaxe: Giant huge weapons, needs two hands and only used by Barbarians. Do 1d12 Damage
Pretty much you can have whatever kind of weapon you want, but it just does the damage listed. If it shoots/is thrown, you use your Dexterity bonus. If you go up and hit someone, it uses your Strength bonus.
The individual qualities of the weapon depends on what you want and what the GM will let you get away with.
FIGHTING WITH TWO WEAPONS
Totally cool right? Being like Arthur Dayne in Game of Thrones, or Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith, or Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I mean, yeah, but you have to know what you’re doing.
When you fight with two weapons you get to make a separate attack with each one. However, unless noted in your class description, you lose your level and stat bonus to both the rolls. You cannot fight with two two-handed weapons, unless you are a Barbarian who is bleeding out.
DODGE SCORE
This number is equal to your Dexterity score. This is the number that enemies need get on their roll if they want to hit you
SHIELDS
Shields can help you dodge in hand to hand
combat, and if things are thrown at you. There are three types of shield.
Small Shield: Like a buckler, adds +1 to dodge
Medium Shield: Like a knight’s shield adds +2 to dodge
Large Shield: Like a pavise or kite shield adds +3 to dodge
Parrying Dagger: Like a main gauche. Adds +1 to dodge in melee and also counts as a second weapon
Like weapons, armour can be whatever you want it to be, but it has one of these properties. Each point of armour takes one point away from your dodge bonus, but also reduces one point from incoming damage. Each point of armour has one weight, partly because it is heavy, and partly it is harder to carry other things the more armour you have on. If you wear more armour than your class allows, you lose all your class abilities whilst doing so (because you can’t move well enough to do your thing)
+1 (Padded clothing)
+2 (Quilted leather, Ewok pelt)
+3 (Boiled leather, that wooden armour from Hook)
+4 (Bronze Scales, Studded Leather)
+5 (Chainmail hauberk)
+6 (hoplite panoply, half plate)
+7 (lorica segmentata, Ned Kelly cosplay)
+8 (14th Century Knight’s Armour)
+9 (15th Century Full Plate, Dragon Bone Armour)
+10 (16th Century Knight’s armour, Robocop but without the power supply)
SAVES
If you want to dodge out of the way of something,
or resist a magic attack, or something similar, you roll a twenty sided die and
try to roll UNDER your relevant
stat.
Most poisons and diseases require a strength save, most dodging requires a
dexterity save, most illusion magic requires an intelligence save, and most
attempts at mind control require a charm save.
Pretty much if you are actively doing something it is an ability test, and if you are passively reacting you are doing a save.
COMBAT
Combat is measured in rounds (a notional unit of time about 6 seconds long). Each round you may do three things. 1) Move, you can move your regular amount of movement (about 10 metres, or 30’ in old money); 2) Take an action, this can be to make an attack, to cast a spell, to aid someone who is dying, to run an extra move’s worth, to interact with an ancient piece of machinery, or whatever you want to do that would conceivably take six seconds to do; 3) A free action, like six seconds worth of talking, anything you could do whilst simultaneously doing an action.
Every character acts in a round, how this is determined is by rolling a twenty sided die and adding your Dexterity bonus. Higher is better. After everyone involved has had a turn the next round begins, and continues until all parties agree that combat is over.
To attack you roll a twenty sided die and add your melee (if hitting with a sword) or range (if throwing or shooting something) bonus to the roll. If this equals or exceeds the target’s dodge (dexterity stat minus any armour points) then you hit them, and can roll your weapon’s damage.
CRITICAL HITS
If you roll a Twenty (20) on your roll to hit, this is a Critical Hit! Everyone cheers and makes a big fuss! Plus, after you roll your damage, you get to add the most that your dice could have rolled on top of that (ie small weapons would add 4, light weapons would add 6, medium weapons 8, etc.), and you can choose to do something cool as well, like trip up your opponent, or flip up onto a chandelier, or anything else the GM will let you get away with.
GETTING HURT
If you get bitten by a monster, or hit by a
trap, or do something else foolhardy and dangerous, you are liable to lose
health. You can regain health by having a rest overnight. Every time you rest
without being disturbed (by wandering monsters or the like) you regain your
Strength Bonus in health.If you rest in comfort (like staying at an inn with nice food and a warm undisturbed place to sleep) you get all your health back.
However, if at any point you go down to
zero health, you are bleeding out (unless you are a Barbarian). You topple over
in a faint. You have three rounds of being unconscious then you are dead.
Someone else can use their action to stabilise you and stop you from dying, or
to go through your pockets and look for loose change. However even if you get
back up again, once you drop you may suffer a permanent injury. You will also
die if your health goes to -10.
For more information on Death and Dying see here.
LEVELLING UP
What everyone came here to do! You level up by experience points, which you get for exploring (everytime you go somewhere new, be in a dungeon room or a new continent you get experience), finding treasure, overcoming puzzles and problems, and defeating monsters.
When you level up you get whatever your class entry says you get (a variable amount of health, and a greater ability to hit things usually), plus a chance to change your stats. Every time you level up, you choose one Stat to try and improve. You then roll a twenty sided die, and if you roll under you stat it permanently improves by 1, but if you roll over your stat it goes up by 2!
MAGIC
Magic is always the long boring bit of the rules, so if you’re not going to play a Bard or a Wizard stop reading here and go off and do something productive instead. Or go have fun playing the game! Only the nerds who play Magic people need to read this.
...
In this game there are two types of magic: Bard Magic and Wizard Magic. Bards have the power of healing, charm, and knowledge. Wizards shoot fireballs, and other such malarkey.
BARD MAGIC
Bard magic is the magic of knowing things.
This is often songs, riddles, cunning tricks, or little known secrets. Bards learn how to talk to and Enchant creatures, and to heal people. Bards begin knowing Talking to and Enchanting of humans, and learn other things by stages. They learn one type to talk to at first level. In order to learn to Enchant a type of thing, you must first learn to talk to it.
1 Beasts (Bears, Cats, Dogs, Horses, things that walk around on land)
2 Birds (Eagles, Chickens, Ducks, Bats, Dinosaurs, things that go in the sky or in the water)
3 Bushes (Plants, trees, large banks of seaweed)
4 Bugbears (magical but physical beasts, manticores, chimerae, krakens, giant ants,
all sorts of things within the realm of the physically monstrous)
5 Boogums (outsider things: angels, demons, elder gods, spirits, ghosts, undead, etc.)
In
order to learn to talk to Bugbears Bards must first
master all the arts of Enchanting the first three forms of life. And in order
to talk to Boogums, Bards must know how to Enchant Bugbears.
Bards have a pool of
healing every day equal to their Charm Stat plus their level. They can heal any sort of creature they can talk to. As an action they can bestow any amount of their healing points on to any creature, including themselves.
Each Bard has as many magic points per day as they have levels, unused magic points disappear when the total is recharged with a night’s rest. Magic points can be used to track a type of creature that the Bard can talk to, or can be turned into a number of Healing Points equal to the Bard's Charm bonus.
A Bard can use magic points to try and Enchant a person or creature (more stubborn, aggresive, or powerful things might require more magical oomph) making the creature is immediately friendly towards them. This isn't mind control and will end if they ask the creature to do something really stupid, but it will be willing to do favours. This enchantment will last for a few minutes if the creature is opposed to the Bard, but can continue indefinitely (ie if you don't take advantage, you just made a new friend by magic/being charming). To enchant a creature in this fashion roll Bard level and Charm modifier, plus a six sided dice for every magic point spent on enchanting them.
Bards can also use Enchantment to add a six sided dice to
another creature's roll to attack or attempt a skill (including other players). This simply requires the Bard
to declare it and can be done after the roll is made. However, if this is attempted in
combat it will also rob the bard of their next action as they spend it
concentrating on the enchantment instead. If you are out of magic points you cannot Enchant any more
creatures that day.
See here for more on Enchanting.
WIZARD MAGIC
Wizard magic is the magic of understanding the forces of the universe. Theirs is a magic found in laboratories, old books, astrological observations and other nerd shit. They master the elements and combine them in strange and unpredictable ways. Every Wizard starts by having mastery over one of the basic elements, and gains mastery over a new element every level. Each Wizard has as twice their level in magic points per day, unused magic points disappear when the total is recharged with a night’s rest.
The Basic Elements are: Earth, Air, Fire, Water
Once the Wizard has learned at least two elements, they can choose to gain mastery over the Advanced Elements. Advanced Elements require two other elements to be known already, however a Wizard does not need to master all the Basic Elements before mastering an Advanced Element, just the component ones.
The Advanced Elements are: Ice (Water,
Earth), Metal (Earth, Fire), Sound (Air, Water), Lightning (Fire, Air)
Final Elements only can be mastered when all other elements have been.
The Final Elements are: Gravity (Earth, Air) Light (Fire, Water)
Each Wizard has as twice their level in magic points per day, unused magic points disappear when the total is recharged with a night’s rest.
To cast a magic effect with Elemental Mastery, the Wizard rolls a twenty sided dice and adds their Inelligence bonus, their level, and a number of six sided dice equal to the number of magic points put into a spell. The difficulty rises with distance and difficulty.
Example effects by difficulty:
1. Natural, but convenient. A fire grows rapidly
2. Unlikely, but still within the realms of possibility. An unstable hillside collaspses just when needed, and a bouncing rock sails away conveniently striking your foe.
3. Improbable! A once in a lifetime fluke. A small whirlwind appears from nowhere powerful enough to floor a single target then vanishes.
4. Impossible. A fire starts underwater.
5. Allegorical. An aspect of the element is infused into something else, and you can begin to levitate as the wind, or your skin becomes stone, or any other number of improbable things.
Distance also factors into things, the further away the harder it is
1.
Touch: Yourself or right next to you.
2. Near: In the room with you, or as far as you could throw a rock
3. Far: Within the same level of the dungeon, or if outside as far a distance as you could yell and still be understood. Maybe as far as a trebuchet could hurl a stone
4. Wherever You Are: Does what it says on the tin, inside a dungeon can affect anything within the complex. As far as you could see outside.
For more on elemental magic see here
SPELLS & SCROLLS
Spells are like a routine for casting, and can be found by adventuring or researching. Spells are more efficient but also more limited and so knowing the spell "fireball" is always going to cost less magical energy than creating the same effect but with mastery over the element. All Wizard spells have a certain level, which corresponds to their cost to cast in magic points. If a Wizard reads a spell in a different book, or on a scroll, it will take 500 money units and one day per level of spell to copy it (ie a third level spell would take three days and cost 1500 money units). A spell beyond your current level can be copied, but not comprehended until the appropriate level has been reached.
Wizard spells are complex and take time to cast. All Magic spells must be prepared and magic points expended at the beginning of the day. Magic points can be allocated across multiple spell levels. For example, a third level wizard has six magic points, and can prepare two third level spells, or prepare three second level spells, or prepare one third level spell, one second level spell and leave one point free for a first level spell, or leave all magic points free for Elemental Mastery.
Wizard spells don’t live inside them, but instead have to reside in a book. If a Wizard loses their book, or it gets destroyed, or stolen, they will lose all their spells.
Wizards can also inscribe scrolls. This
takes time, but allows you to store magic points and spells between days. To
prepare a spell it takes the spell’s level in hours of work and twice the
spell’s worth in unallocated magic points. So, to create a scroll of a first
level spell it would take an hour’s work and two unallocated magic points, to
create a scroll of a second level spell it would take two hours and four
unallocated magic points. You must have access to paper, inks, writing
implements (which can be expensive), and a safe and secure workshop or library
in which to work in order to create a scroll (which is often hard to find).
Scrolls inscribed with spells, however, are volatile and interact unexpectedly
with one another. The safe number of scrolls one can carry without them
beginning to bicker and fight is one more than your level (non-magic types are
limited to carrying one magic scroll, as they are untrained in spell
wrangling, but Bards count as Wizards for the purposes of scroll-carrying). Any class may cast a spell from a scroll.
SUMMONING DEMONS
All Wizards are taught how to summon Demons, since Demons can be pretty smart and powerful and can probably teach you a lot about magic. Bards probably also know how to do this, but aren’t dumb enough to try, since Demons are very dangerous. Summoning opens the rift between the worlds a little bit more and forces an inhabitant From Beyond into our world to do the caster’s bidding. What exactly comes through the tear, and whether or not it will do what the summoner wishes, is wholly unpredictable.
[1] Negative modifiers? Sounds like advanced mathematical witchcraft! The lowest a number can be is zero! Go play a different game if you want to fool around with numbers that mankind was not meant to wot of.
No comments:
Post a Comment