Sean’s Fantasy Ruleset for Adventuring Games

Rules

Player Principles

Begin and end with the fiction.
Play your character like a stolen car.
Embrace challenge and failure.
Celebrate success.
Don’t hog the spotlight, but shine when it’s on you.

GM Principles

Portray a dangerous world.
Play to find out what happens.
Do not over-prepare.
Do not pull punches.
Present problems without predetermined solutions.

Dealing Damage

When you harm a foe but don’t murder them outright…

Roll the applicable damage and say the result (plus any tags like messy, forceful, etc.). The GM will reduce the victim’s HP by that amount (less armor) and either describe the result or ask you to do so.

Rounding

Always round down when faced with non-integer numbers, unless otherwise noted.

The Challenge Roll

The core mechanic is the challenge roll. To perform a challenge roll, you roll multiple dice at once and read the single highest result.

If you ever need to roll zero or negative dice, roll 2D and take the lowest. You cannot roll a critical hit when you have zero dice.

Critical Hit	You roll multiple 6s.
Strong Hit	The highest die is a 6.
Weak Hit	The highest die is a 4 or 5.
Miss	The highest die is a 1, 2, or 3.

There are three types of rolls that you’ll use most often in the game:

Taking action: When a PC attempts an action that’s dangerous or troublesome, you take an action to find out how it goes. Taking action and the resulting effects and consequences drive most of the game.
Fortune roll: The GM can make a fortune roll to disclaim decision making and leave something up to chance. How loyal is an NPC? How much does the plague spread? How much evidence is burned before the constables kick in the door?
Resistance roll: A player can make a resistance roll when their character suffers a consequence they don’t like. The roll tells us how much stress their character suffers to reduce the severity of a consequence.

Hold

When a move gives you “hold X Currency”…

You can spend that currency as the move describes it.

Crits

Surge

When you land a critical hit…

Hold surge in the amount of the number of dice with a 6 beyond the first. You can spend surge on surge moves.

Any surge you do not use immediately, you do not maintain.

GMs and the Dice

If you are playing as a GM, you can focus on guiding the game and responding to your player’s questions and actions. NPCs don’t need to roll dice when they act, however, you might want some dice available for oracle rolls.

Taking Action

When a player character does something challenging, we take action to see how it turns out. An action is challenging if there’s an obstacle to the PC’s goal that’s dangerous or troublesome in some way. We don’t make an action roll unless the PC is put to the test. If their action is something that we’d expect them to simply accomplish, then we let them accomplish it without making any rolls.

Risk

There are three levels of risk.

Minor Risk: Something bad could happen, but not very likely. Failure is not something to really worry about.
Moderate Risk: There’s danger here if any failure were to occur.
Major Risk: If things go bad, they will go very bad. Success here is absolutely paramount.

Reward

There are three levels of reward.

Minor Reward: You achieve something, but not nearly as much as you’d like. If you were stabbing something, it’s technically stabbed, but not as much as you’d hope. If you were avoiding a danger, you technically avoid it, but you wish you did more.
Moderate Reward: You achieve a satisfactory outcome. If you were stabbing something, it’s stabbed. If you were avoiding a danger, it was avoided.
Major Reward: You achieve much more than you had expected. If you were stabbing something, it sinks in like a hot knife through melted butter. If you were avoiding a danger, it is completely avoided, and probably is no longer dangerous for a time.

State what your goal is and the approach your character will take to make it happen. The GM will tell you the following:

The approach you will use.
The level of risk the approach takes.
The level of reward given if the approach succeeds.
Possible consequences if you fail and rewards if you succeed.

Take Action

When your character acts by taking a risk…

State what your goal is and the approach your character will take to make it happen.

1D for each point in the approaches determined by the GM.
+1D if you have advantage.
-1D if you have disadvantage.

Minor Risk

You act on your terms. You exploit a dominant advantage.

Critical Hit: A success with increased reward.
Hit: Things go as planned and all is well. A success.
Weak Hit: Your character has a sudden realization that their approach will certainly succeed, but with a cost. They can try a different approach, or continue on and suffer the consequences.
Miss: Your character fails before any consequences occur, but a new risky opportunity lies before them. They can attempt again with that approach or try something else.

Moderate Risk

You take a chance. You act to defy danger.

Critical Hit: A success with increased reward.
Hit: A success, and you realize what was at stake.
Weak Hit: Overall a success, but you must suffer the consequences.
Miss: Things do not go your way. Gain +1 XP and you must suffer the consequences.

Major Risk

You overreach your capabilities. You’re in serious trouble.

Critical Hit: A success with increased reward. Gain +1 XP.
Hit: A success, narrowly avoiding the consequences. Gain +1 XP.
Weak Hit: Technically a success, but there is a severe cost. Gain +1 XP and you must suffer the consequences accordingly.
Miss: The worst outcome has happened. Gain +1 XP and you must suffer the consequences accordingly.

Aid

When you assist someone taking action…

You give them advantage to the roll, but you are succeptible to the consequences if there any.

Fortune Roll

The fortune roll is a tool the GM can use to disclaim decision making. You use a fortune roll in two different ways:

When you need to make a determination about a situation the PCs aren’t directly involved in and don’t want to simply decide the outcome.
When an outcome is uncertain, but no other roll applies to the situation at hand.

When you make a fortune roll you may assess any attribute or other stat to determine the stat of the roll, and then perform a regular challenge roll.

If no stat applies, roll 1D for sheer luck or roll 1–3D based on the situation at hand.

Sometimes you are forced to make a fortune roll. This can be with a specific attribute or stat, or with a number added. For example, making a fortune roll with heart, if its value is 3, it is written as "Roll fortune +heart" and you would roll 3 dice.

Fortune Roll

1D for each stat rating.
+1D for each major advantage.
-1D for each major disadvantage.

Critical Hit: Exceptional result / Major. Great reward.
Hit: Good result / Moderate. Full reward.
Partial Hit: Mixed result / Minor. Partial reward.
Miss: Bad result / Poor. Little or no reward.

Survey

When you assess the situation, ask questions, conduct an investigation, or follow a track…

Roll fortune +insight.

Major: You get exceptional details. The information is complete and follow-up questions may expand into related areas or reveal more than you hoped for.
Moderate: You get good details. Clarifying and follow-up questions are possible.
Minor: You get incomplete or partial information. More information gathering will be needed to get all the answers.

Resistance

After seeing the roll result when taking action, you can choose to resist the consequences. The GM will tell you which attribute you will use.

Resist

When your character resists the consequences of an action…

Mark 1 grit.

The GM chooses which attribute applies. Roll 1D for each point in the attribute. Roll 1D for each point in your endure action.

Critical Hit: You avoid all consequences and you are now in control of the situation. Gain 1 grit back.
Hit: The consequences are avoided.
Weak Hit: The consequences are reduced. If taking damage, take half damage. You can mark 1 grit to avoid them completely.
Miss: The consequences still happen. You can mark 1 grit to reduce them (half damage if taking damage) or mark 2 grit to avoid them completely.

Special Resistance

Every character begins with 1 special resistance that they mark when using an ability that lets them use a special resistance. Magical items can increase the number of special resistances a character has.