Martyn now sits on a contested throne, makes wars, grinds the poor, stirs rebellion.
They Fey Courts have grown dark and unfriendly, and meddle in mortal affairs.
Hedge-wizards and sorcerers bicker, and some finger the dusty covers of books of forbidden lore with a new interest.
And as old treaties fray, familiar enemies press at the borders of the cracked kingdom.
⚔
How often could a campaign, a game, get underway on the back of a few scribbled notes like these, found on a scrap of paper at the back of the desk?Perhaps all you need to do with these is get ready to play the world:
- Characters have 7 points for attributes and skills (max. +2); 6 Hits
- In danger, roll 7+ to succeed: higher (9+) is better, lower (5-) is worse (negotiate modifiers)
- In combat, everyone rolls and the higher roll succeeds: 1 light damage; 2 solid; 3 heavy (armour provides additional protection, scene by scene, on the same scale)
ReplyDeleteI am following these articles about 'play the world' and they are great. For readers who do not come following them, it would be nice to add what type of dice you use to make the rolls in each of the posts.
Another thing, I am using Sword & Backpack with your Rough Chances mechanics and it works perfectly.
Thanks...
Glad you’re enjoying the series. For all the “play the world” posts the roll is two six-sided dice, the easiest to find. Though, as I said in another comment thread, it would be quite possible to use d20 with a broader range of modifiers.
DeleteSword and Backpack/Rough Chances is intriguing. Do you use the three character clauses from S&B?
No, I only have a list of skills, from which the player can choose four that are compatible with the concept of character they want to play. Those skills give +4 to the dice rolls. If any skill is used for something that was not created, but its use makes sense, just give a +2 bonus to the roll.
DeleteOr if I don't want to use the numerical bonuses, I use the mechanics of the advantage dice if they have the skill, and if they don't have it, throw with a disadvantage. The difficulty depends on the task to be performed.
DeleteI like it.
ReplyDeleteYou'll find a preliminary "pocket" version of these rules in the comments to the character-building post. I haven't had a chance to try running it yet, but it's really scratching my itch to play right now. A very nice simple ruleset.
It's nice to see how these compact rules can be printed to a couple of pages. Like everything here, you're free to use them for personal, non-commercial use. There may be some refinements down the track, like the option to use armour as additional protection. Still tinkering!
ReplyDeleteI tried it today with a few girls (about 12 years old). Very easy to adjudicate. We tried fighting an Owlbear (an avg roll of five plus two for expert hunter managed to injure the beast but not take it out) and hunting a Vampire Spawn in a ruined mansion (a dodge roll of four meant the hunter was bitten by a poisonous spider which took one hit off her, and a 12 for attacking the vampire meant a perfect killing blow with her stake and mallet).
ReplyDeleteI used the new DnD Young Adventurers' Guides for monster descriptions and character ideas, and it caught their interest. There is a "simple DnD" ruleset on the D&DBeyond website with some similarity to these, but with one D6. (2+ for easy tasks, 4+ for medium, 6 for hard). It uses the "attributes" and "danger ratings" listed in the books, but these are not hard and fast and are entirely "fluff" books.
One thing I found issue with, and have in the past, is the numerical element of adding to skills. With rank beginners, I find it easier to just name skills as in And Play, with no listed bonuses but with the GM guesstimating their effect according to the Rough Chances chart.
This is a fantastic discussion. I really like the actual play description, and the way each roll (high and low) has meaning, from a hit on a character to a perfect killing blow.
ReplyDeleteMy thought is, with purely descriptive skills, you could take the approach of assigning a modifier on the fly (-3 to +3) depending on the character and the situation.
If you're using the Rough Chances and d20, then you can either shift to an easier or harder row, or as RavenClaw does, add +4 for a skill or ability that's directly relevant to the character, or +2 to an improvised but related skill or ability.
Have you seen the notes on Advantage and Impact by Dreaming Dragonslayer (https://www.google.com/amp/s/dreamingdragonslayer.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/advantage-and-impact/amp/)?
DeleteMaybe you find them interesting. Instead of using modifiers, having advantage (or disadvantage) affects the impact of success or failure, all in the narrative.
Btw, your posts are really inspiring. Particularly the Green Dragon game, which has influenced the current version of my own game (https://twodicetales.blogspot.com/p/the-rules_10.html?m=1). Keep up the great work!