This is a fantasy role-playing game for quick, chaotic adventures with friends. Everyone can play a protagonist if you agree to share the burden of inventing the world around you during play. Dream up dangers & treasures to surprise each other, working together to complete the kinds of quests you're all interested in.
When you create protagonists together, roll three six-sided dice & write the total against an attribute. After doing this six times, name them & devise a unique role within your adventuring party. Every six points in an attribute increases a related resource (resources start at one): Burden is the weight you can carry, Luck is spent to reroll a die, Health when harmed, Lore to recall knowledge, Wits to notice clues, & Contacts to introduce people, all by degrees of usefulness or severity.
When you risk consequences to achieve success, roll two twenty-sided dice against the most appropriate attribute. Each die rolling below your attribute is some success, each roll equal or above is a consequence.
- If both roll below, you succeed without consequence!
- If one rolls your attribute or above, you succeed with a lesser consequence.
- If both roll your attribute or above, you gain a story about failing to avoid all consequences!
When you evaluate the quality of anything (magic, monsters, money, or mishaps) measure & group it by three degrees: Trivial, Notable, or Remarkable. Trivial foes have trivial armour & gear. Notable treasure attracts notable thieves who endure (& inflict) notable harm. Remarkable contacts provide remarkable magic for remarkable fees & remarkable risk. Describe these things as impressively as you imagine them to be.
When you trade blows in combat, harm is inflicted one degree per success, & suffered one degree per consequence. Armour can absorb damage by having its quality reduced by these same degrees. A protagonist character (PC) on zero health is unconscious (but not dead until harmed further). A non-protagonist character (NPC) is dead as soon as they have taken their degree of harm.
When you want to specify how fine or durable an item is, roll one six sided die per degree & record the total. If you roll a consequence above that item's quality whilst using it, then reduce its quality by one degree, rerolling for the new value. Any item reduced below trivial is irrevocably broken.
When you rest, replenish & repair overnight, regain any spent resources. You may also restore or improve shields & armour if you have access to sufficient material, tools, or crafters & their fees for the difference in quality. Advance one worldly threat in your absence, then set out to overcome it.
When you have a handful of stories, at least one of them is worth telling at the tavern, & four worth drinking away. After telling your best story, increase an attribute by one (none higher than 18) & erase your other stories.
When you walk away from this world, I hope you have created notes & maps & jokes & ideas to share with players old & new. I hope that your fantasy world becomes one worth returning to.