REDBOXHACK

nd
Playtest Copy, 2 Edition

Monday, December 10, 2007

INTRODUCTION 1
SETTING 1
CREATING A CHARACTER 2
WARRIOR 5
MAGUS 6
MYSTIC 7
LONGRUNNER 8
SNAKE 9
BEAR 10
FOX 11
CONFLICT 12
COMBAT 14
HEALING 17
ADVENTURE CONSTRUCTION 18
XP AND ADVANCEMENT 21

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 Introduction
Welcome to the second edition of The Redbox Hack. What started out as an attempt to boil down the
elements of red box D&D I found entertaining has turned into something with a life of it’s own. You don’t
have to squint too hard to see some of those original D&D elements here. Classes, levels, and a system that
revolves around killing monsters survived the hacking. But there’s a lot of indie-game sensibilities in here
too.

The first time I played this thing, I was surprised at how fun it was. I’ve written quite a few games over the
years and most of them have been stinkers. Or they took quite a bit of work to convert them from something
with a little bit of promise into a fun and playable game.

I’m excited to present you with this updated edition. But I want to tell you that this edition would not have
been written if not for the enthusiasm of the folks who have played it. The micro-fanbase of RBH has been
a huge motivation for making these improvements. You guys know who you are.

Thank you.

p.s. The wonderful heading fonts are courtesy of www.blambot.com. They rock.

Setting
The world is a dangerous place filled with monsters to be slaughtered and treasures to liberate. There are
fantastic places to explore and interesting people to meet. You’re always far from home and on the move.

I’ve intentionally left most of the setting color blank, ready for you to fill in. I hint at lots of material in
different sections, like Character, Monsters, and Adventures. I prefer a slightly Asian flavored setting with
a heaping helping of Heavy Metal strangeness. But that’s just how I like to play it. I want you to bring your
own favorite fantasy material to the setting. Be creative. Steal from a variety of sources. Wow your players.
Don’t let me chain you down.

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 CreatingaCharacter
The PCs are all professional adventurers in search of fame and fortune. They’re usually young and
inexperienced, but don’t necessarily have to be. This chapter will guide you through creating your
character.

ATTRIBUTES
Your character will have six attributes, each rated –1 through +5. These values are used as modifiers to
most of your die rolls.

ALERTNESS SNEAKINESS
Does your character have sharp eyes? Or are they Can your character tiptoe past mice without
surprised by every little thing? This attribute tells waking them or does he wake the dead just by
us about how much your character tends to pay strolling past the tomb? Roll Sneakiness
attention to the world around them. The GM can whenever your character is trying to do
call for an Alertness roll to see if your character something without being noticed.
noticed something important happening. In
combat, Alertness is used for your initiative roll SIZE
and for the Assist action. Big adventurers are strong adventurers who can
carry lots of stuff. This attribute has lots of
DARING fantastic non-combat utility. Like for
Does your character have the guts to jump across intimidating people. Or reaching things on high
that river of lava? How about to sneak past those shelves. Size has an indirect influence on combat
well-armed guards? Use this attribute when your by determining how much heavy stuff you can
character is trying to accomplishing something wield and a direct influence on the Push action.
that might have disastrous results. In combat,
Daring affects your ability to Show Off. STUBBORNNESS
Stubbornness is the catch-all reactive attribute.
ELOQUENCE Someone’s trying to seduce you? Or to talk you
Smooth talker or mush-mouth? When your into giving up your favorite shirt? Roll your
character is trying to accomplish something with stubbornness to oppose them. Stubbornness has
talk, this is the attribute. Eloquence has no direct no direct influence on combat.
influence on combat.

INITIAL SCORES
To determine the initial value of your attributes, roll 2d10 and consult the chart. Attribute Chart
Assign the modifier to one attribute of your choice. For example, if you roll a 17 19 or 20 +5
that’s worth a +4 modifier. If you want to assign that modifier to your Size, all 17 or 18 +4
you have to do is write +4 in the box next to Size on your character sheet. Easy. 15 or 16 +3
Now repeat the process until each of your attributes has a modifier. 13 or 14 +2
11 or 12 +1
MULLIGAN 7 to 10 +0
If you just don’t like how your scores turned out ask your GM about either 6 or lower -1
swapping a couple scores around or maybe just re-rolling the whole batch.
Remember that these scores will not look as high as regular D&D scores. If all your attributes add up to +6
or better, and you’ve got at least one score of +3 or better, then you’ve got a pretty good set of attributes.
You probably don’t need to re-roll.

WHAT SCORES DO YOU NEED?

Unlike D&D, you don’t need any particular scores to make a good character. If you want to make a
Warrior with –1 Daring and –1 Size, that’s acceptable. Funny, but acceptable.

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CLASS
Now that you have your character’s attributes, you need to choose a class for them. Your character’s class
outlines their special skills that they bring to adventuring. There are 7 classes to choose from. Four of the
classes represent human professions (if speaking to trees were a profession) and three represent
anthropomorphic animal characters. The next chapter outlines the seven classes.

DIBS
There should only ever be one character of a given class in each adventuring party. If two or more players
want to play the same class the player with the lowest total Attribute points should get their first choice. If
there’s a tie, flip a coin.

LIMITATIONS
Each class has an innate limitation. There are certain things that some characters just can’t do, or can’t do
as well as other characters. But taking on the limitation is an option. If you choose to deal with your
character’s limitation, jot it onto your character sheet.

It won’t break a thing if you want to author your own limitations. Similarly, it’ll be ok for you to take on a
limitation from a different class if you like.

TALENTS
Now pick out a single talent from your class’ list. You may choose any one of the talents on the list. Each
talent is either something your character can do that no one else can or something that everyone can do, but
you can do extraordinarily well.

CROSS-CLASS TALENTS
When your character levels up you may be able to choose talents from other classes’ lists. There are two
limitations on cross-classing. The first is that you may never have more cross-class talents than you have
talents from your own class. The second is, if anyone else is playing a character of the class you want to
pull a talent from, you have to get their permission.

For example:
Lisa is playing a Bear, Mark is playing a Magus, and no one in the group is playing a Warrior. At
second level Lisa decides that she would like to take Puppet Strings as her new talent. Mark’s magus
doesn’t have the Puppet Strings talent yet, but he still has the option of denying permission to Lisa for
her character to have it. On the other hand, Lisa could take any one of the Warrior talents without
worrying about stepping on anyone’s toes.

ARMS AND ARMOR

This system doesn’t have a shopping list of weapons and armors. Not that I’m opposed to shopping lists.
Quite the contrary. But in this system I want you to bring your own fantasy accessories to your character.
Does your warrior wear shiny plate mail or lacquered wooden armor? Maybe your character wears a mish-
mash of iron cookware as their armor. Does your character wield a katana? A bow? A small tree trunk with
a rock tied to the end?

Whatever your character may bring into a fight, you can probably easily qualify it as one of five different
categories of weapon: Light, Reach, Ranged, Heavy or Very Heavy. Or one of four categories of armor:
None, Light, Heavy, and Very Heavy.

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ENCUMBRANCE
Some things are heavy. Some things are very heavy. Your character may carry a number of heavy things
equal to their Size bonus without being encumbered. Very heavy things count as two heavy things. If your
Size bonus is zero, or less than zero, you may not carry any heavy things at all.

When your character is carrying more heavy things than their Size rating, they are encumbered. You can
still move and talk and stuff, but you’ll fail every roll you make until you are no longer encumbered. So
taking a heavy weapon and heavy armor is no good for your character if their Size is less than two (for
example).

WEAPON TYPES
A light weapon is small, easy to wield, easy to A heavy weapon takes a big adventurer to wield
conceal and handy for getting between the chinks it. It’s not fancy or elegant, but it hurts a lot
in your enemy’s armor. Roll an extra d10 when when it hits. A heavy weapon does 2 points of
wielding a light weapon. damage instead of 1 when you hit your target.

A reach weapon is very long. You can use it to A very heavy weapon makes heavy weapons
keep your enemies at bay. Your armor class is look meek. It takes a huge adventurer to wield
one higher when you’re wielding a reach one of these monsters. A very heavy weapon
weapon. does 3 points of damage when you hit your
target.
A ranged weapon can hit foes at great distances.
You may attack targets in adjacent arenas with a
ranged weapon.

ARMOR TYPES
Light armor is very basic. It either only covers Very heavy armor covers your entire body.
the vital organs or only covers the part of your Joints are covered up with armor that is slightly
body you intend to show to your enemy. more flexible than the rest.

Heavy armor covers most of your body. It

usually leaves gaps at your joints to allow
freedom of movement.

ARM YOUR CHARACTER

Choose a weapon and a type of armor for your character. Be certain that your weapon and armor don’t
make you encumbered. Record the Bonus and Favored Arena for each of your weapons.

SPECIALIST GEAR
In addition to your weapon and your armor, your character has a single piece of special gear that he or she
uses when adventuring. It can be just about anything. It might be a set of lockpicks, a mount, a set of
papers from a high ranking magistrate, or even a fancy set of clothes. Whenever you use your character’s
specialist gear in a conflict, you’ll gain a bonus to your roll. Specialist gear never has any effect on
combat. Make a note of your specialist gear on your character sheet.

SECONDARY WEAPON
As an option, you may choose to have a secondary weapon instead of taking any specialist gear. In combat
you may switch between your primary weapon and your secondary weapon at any time.

MOTIVATION
The last step in creating a character is to determine why your character is out adventuring. Why is your
character killing monsters and hunting for treasures? To get rich and famous, yeah. But why? One or two
sentences will suffice.

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 Warrior
You kill things professionally. Not that the other classes aren’t good at killing, you just focus on it a little
bit more.

LIMITATION: SELF ABSORBED

You should never pass up an opportunity to steer the conversation towards yourself and your exploits.
When someone isn’t paying attention to you then you should do whatever it takes to make them pay
attention to you.

TALENTS
ARMOR OF SCARS STRATEGIST
Getting beat up as often as you do has it’s Your character has a particularly good eye for
advantages. You’re tougher. Lots tougher. guiding others in fights. You gain a +5 bonus to
Instead of five hit points you have eight. That’s a Assist rolls and you may divide the Awesome
lot more punishment you can take. Tokens you receive from those actions between
any allies you can communicate with.
BEEFCAKE / CHEESECAKE
You may look good in a full suit of armor, but WEAPON BOND
you look much better without one. Gain a +2 Pick one specific weapon for your character.
bonus on Eloquence rolls and a +2 bonus on Your character either has gone
Show Off rolls when your character is wearing though, or will go through soon, a special
light armor or no armor at all. warrior’s rite for bonding her soul to that
weapon. After the rite is completed the weapon
CHARGER cannot be broken, stolen, lost, or damaged in any
After moving, you may take a free attack action way until the death of the character.
against anyone in your new arena.
Furthermore, while wielding that particular
weapon, all of your attack dice are face dice.

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 Magus
You are a student of the supernatural forces.

LIMITATION: SPARKER
You suffer from the side effects of being a conduit for powerful energy. Candles and lanterns
spontaneously light in your presence and your eyes have a tendency to glow in an unnatural way.

TALENTS
BLAST ILLUSIONS
Your character can summon a great deal of Your character has the ability to fool the eyes
destructive firepower from his fingertips. Just so and ears of those around you with realistic
long as you are able to move your hands freely, illusions. Roll your Stubbornness vs. the
you may make a Ranged attack that does 2 points Alertness of skeptics. In combat you may use
of damage. This attack treats all arenas as it’s Stubbornness in place of Daring for a Show Off
favored arena, giving you the +2 bonus to attack action.
no matter where your target is standing.
MIRRORS
ENCHANT Your character has the ability to use reflective
You can make ordinary things into enchanted surfaces like they were cell phones. Video cell
things. An enchanted item gives it’s wielder a +2 phones. Anything with a smooth reflection
bonus to rolls when it’s being used for the works nicely.
purpose it was created for. A hammer does not
make a good boat, enchanted or not. PUPPET STRINGS
You may cause inanimate objects to become
You may make an enchantment permanent by animate. They are, for the most part, merely
permanently reducing one of your attributes by puppets under your control. A chair may be made
one. You are not limited in the number of to walk to you, an origami dragonfly made to fly
permanent enchantments you can make, but you about your head. They have no intelligence of
are limited to one temporary enchantment at a their own, but they can follow very simple
time. Temporary enchantments fade after a instructions, such as “Bring this letter to Yessif.”
couple days or when you will them to fade. The animation usually wears out after a few
hours, or when the Magus chooses to release the
spell

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 Mystic
One part Cleric, one part Augra from The Dark Crystal, and one part crazy cat lady, the Mystic is
traditionally a travelling wise woman. One that has conversations with trees.

LIMITATION: WILD STYLE

Civilized things like beds and hairbrushes are just plain alien to you. Rail against so-called civilized
contrivances whenever possible.

TALENTS
ANIMUS MEAL COMPANION
Your character knows how to cook an interesting Your character has attracted the long term
meal. It tastes horrid (utterly repulsive), but friendship of one of the animal kingdom. The
anyone who eats the whole thing is transformed animal’s attributes add up to +5, it can have one
into a woodland animal. They retain their special ability (like Flight or something), and it
intelligence, but are otherwise trapped in the can have any weapon and armor attributes that
body of an animal. The spell wears off at sunrise you think make sense (and are appropriate
or sunset, whichever comes first. for it’s Size). Treat the animal like an NPC under
your control. There’s no telepathic link, but you
COMMANDING VOICE can converse freely with the animal. Your
Your character can make their voice take on a companion has the same plot immunity to death
particular and supernaturally powerful tone. that your character does.
When you do so, you can give others commands
that they find particularly difficult to disobey. CRYSTAL AUGURY
You may roll Eloquence vs. Stubbornness to Crystals can tell you secrets. Like where to find
force your subject to perform even self- lost and hidden things. They can also answer
destructive tasks. In combat you may use questions for you. Usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’
Eloquence in place of Daring for the Show Off questions like “Is this real gold?” The closer the
action and you may use Eloquence in place of crystal is to it’s subject, the stronger a reading it
Alertness for the Assist action. can give to you.

CONVERSATIONAL SPIRIT
You can freely converse with the spirits of
plants, places, and the dead. What those
spirits have to say is generally up to the GM.

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 Longrunner
A little bit spy, a little bit ninja, and a lotta-bit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

LIMITATION: FOLLOWER
All your training revolves around being part of a team. You are a cog in a machine. You don’t need
permission to do every little thing, but you look to others to instruct you when important decisions need to
be made.

TALENTS
BIRD FEET PERFECT DISGUISE
Any surface can support you while you’re A good spy is one that cannot be seen. You are
running. Water, leaves, crumbling rooftops, the kind of spy who can disguise himself as
falling snowflakes, etc. If you stop running, you anyone or anything. From the general’s best
fall. friend to a potted plant, your disguises are
complete and compelling. When your character
CHALK DOOR takes the time to disguise herself, you don’t need
Your character doesn’t need to bother with locks to roll to deceive anyone. You always succeed.
and keys. Just so long as you have some chalk or
some paint, you can draw your own door on any TWO THINGS AT ONCE (IF ONE IS RUNNING) Your
wall. These doors only open for you and for character is so used to living his life on his feet
other folks with this talent. To normal people that he’s developed the ability to multi task.
they are just drawings on walls. Eating, sleeping, or even composing poetry while
running is well within his grasp. In combat you
GUILD CONTACTS may follow any Attack, Assist, or Show Off
Wherever your character goes, there always action with a free Move action. Note that you
seems to be someone around who’s part of your only get one free Move action per turn, even if
guild. All you have to do is look, and there they you have multiple attacks in a single turn.
are. A social network you can depend on for help
and information. And a place to sleep when
things get rough.

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 Snake
The snake class is inspired by a bit from the Nagas of L5R and a bit from the Ancients of Call of Cthulhu.
They’re smart, invented written languages, and are generally very creepy.

LIMITATION: COLD BLOODED

Your character favors warm temperatures and shuns cold ones. Be lazy when it’s cold outside and be
active when it’s warm. Seek warmth wherever you can find it.

TALENTS
RD
3 EYE THE WORDS
You have physically grown a third somewhere You have discovered the secret of
on your body. You can now see incorporeal finding something’s true name. That true name is
things like ghosts and invisible monsters. usually pages and pages long. But, with some
You can also see through solid things like walls. time, and careful observation, you can convert
any inanimate unliving object into words on a
HOMUNCULUS page. The size of the object is no barrier. When
It’s a complex and gross ritual, but you can split someone reads the words again, the object
yourself into two identical individuals. Each is returned to it’s former state, immediately in
individual has identical memories and attitudes front of the reader.
right up until the moment of the split. You will
have to split your HP between the two WATER BREATHER
versions of the character. However, that’s the You’ve developed the ability to breathe water.
only thing you split. Each copy has otherwise Also, you can move about beneath the water as
identical attributes and talents. If freely as you could on dry land.
one copy eats (yes, eats) the other, then you have
one character again with the combined HP. YARI MASTER
You may make one free attack with a reach
Note that it’s possible for one or the other of the weapon every turn. Assuming you’re wielding a
copies to die. The first one to run out of HP is reach weapon.
the dead one. The remaining twin holds onto his
plot immunity from death. If one twin dies, the
other regains his full HP at the beginning of the
next adventure.

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 Bear
I can’t tell you how many of my games of D&D included talking bears in floppy hats. Maybe it was from
watching The Jungle Book one too many times. In any event, the Bears are a kind of Mystic-Fighter.
They’re peaceful, until they’re not. Then look out.

LIMITATION: PARTY ANIMAL

Your character cannot pass up a celebration. If no one else is going to start a celebration then you’re
perfectly willing and able to start one yourself.

TALENTS
A MIGHTY GRIP ROCK MUSIC
You are able to wield some crazy big weapons. With a good musical instrument, you can play a
You have five weapon categories available to tune that “wakes up” the rocks within earshot.
you that no one else gets. Heavy Reach, Heavy Boulders, pebbles, and even stone carvings attain
Ranged, Very Heavy Reach, Very Heavy a basic animal-like intelligence, and tend to
Ranged, and Very-Very Heavy. Very-Very follow you around like rats to the piper.
Heavy weapons are like Very Heavy weapons, Sometimes they’ll even do chores for you. If your
but they do 4 points of damage instead. music is really good. When the music stops the
rocks go back to sleep.
HEART SONG
Anyone can fix things. You do it with style. And SKY DANCE
in very little time and without any spare parts. You can lead a dance to move the moon and
Just sing a happy song and the object (or person) stars. The weather, the phase of the moon, and
knits it’s self right back together. When you heal even the setting and rising of the sun follow your
a PC, treat them like they have more than 3 HP desires when you get enough people to dance for
left. Your song and a good drink is enough to you.
heal any wound.

LONG SHADOW
When you guard someone, you really guard
them. As a combat action you may declare your
character to be Guarding. While Guarding,
whenever anyone in your arena is attacked, you
may designate yourself as the target instead.
Furthermore, while Guarding you may try to
prevent anyone from leaving the arena with a
Size vs. Size roll.

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 Fox
Uppity little fur balls of doom. Don’t corner one if you know what’s good for you. Part thief, part Cuisinart.
All attitude.

LIMITATION: OVERWHELMING CURIOSITY

From the mysteries of the universe to the inner workings of a poison needle trap to whether or not Eleanor
is really in love with Geoff, or if she’s really just faking it… these are the things your character needs to
know about. Leave no stone unturned and no question unanswered.

TALENTS
FRENZY SHAPE SHIFTER
Your character is particularly dangerous when You can slip between three different forms, your
cornered. When you are in a Tight arena you do natural anthro-fox form, a full-fox form, and a
an additional point of damage on all your attacks. mostly-human form. No matter what form you
are in, you are always recognizable for who you
DREAM THIEF are to people who know you. Your
Your character has the ability to physically enter attributes change a bit when you change form
someone’s dreams. Not only that, but you can too. Gain +1 Size/-1 Alertness in human form,
steal things from within their dreams. If you can and the opposite in full-fox form.
hold it in your hand you can take it with you.
When the dreams aren’t showing you what you Note: If you are cross-classing from Bear or
want to see, you may make a Stubborn vs. Snake, you will use those animals instead of Fox.
Stubborn roll to direct the dream. Things you If you are cross-classing from any of the human
steal from people’s dreams evaporate in direct classes, you may choose any animal form to take.
sunlight and when the dreamer wakes. To enter
someone’s dream you must inhale their breath THREE TAILS
while they sleep. You’ve got three tails. They allow you to fly. If
and when you are transformed into a form that
NIGHT EYES has no tails (or less than three tails) you loose the
Your night vision is super developed. And it ability to fly until you get your tails back.
makes you pretty confident. You can see
perfectly well in any level of low light, even if
there is no light present at all. When there is
either no light at all or a near complete lack of
light, the confidence you gain gives you a
+2 bonus to all your attribute rolls. In combat or
out.

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 Conflict
Technically, the combat system is a form of conflict resolution. However, for clarity, when these rules
refer to a conflict what I mean is a non-combat conflict.

THE DANGERS OF ACTION

Your character might try to do all sorts of things. You might try things like seducing a young prince,
jumping across a river of lava, or opening a locked vault door. Sometimes there’s a chance your action will
fail. Sometimes there’s a chance your action will cause bad things to happen. Those bad things are the
dangers of your action.

When the GM thinks it’s appropriate, he should respond to your characters actions with some dangers. No
individual action should have more than three dangers attached. One at a time, roll for each danger to see if
it comes true or not. If there is a chance of failure, that particular danger should always be rolled last.

Note that all the dangers of an action should be laid out up-front, before the first roll is made. The player
should have the opportunity to back out of an action if they decided that the dangers associated with that
action are just too great to risk.

THE ROLL
Once you’ve determined what the dangers are, you’ll be rolling one at a time to see which dangers are
avoided and which dangers hit you square in the face. For each danger the player will roll 1d12 plus the
bonus from an appropriate attribute. With a little luck, which attribute is appropriate will be obvious at the
time. If it’s not obvious, get creative. Make one of your attributes match up. At the same time the GM will
roll 1d12 and add in the value of the NPC’s appropriate attribute. If there’s no NPC on the opposing side,
assume an attribute modifier of +0. If the player’s roll is equal to or higher than the GM’s roll the danger is
averted. If the GM’s roll is higher than the player’s the danger is realized.

For example:
Lisa says that her character, Rarl, is going to try to gather up the whole town and throw a party. The
GM decides that there are two potential dangers here. The first danger is that she might not be able to
convince everyone in the town that the night after a mass funeral is a good time for a shindig. The
second danger is that the party may insult the recently dead and cause them to come haunt the town.

Lisa decides that she doesn’t want either of those dangers coming true, so we decide to roll.

For the first danger we pick out a particular NPC to represent the folks that don’t want to party. We
role play it out a bit and eventually Lisa rolls Rarl’s Eloquence vs. the NPC’s Stubbornness. Lisa
looses, so not everyone comes to the party. Note that the GM did not say that there was a danger that
the party might not happen, just that attendance might not be one hundred percent. So the party kicks
off that evening a few townsfolk short.

A bit of role playing the party later, the GM reminds Lisa of the danger of waking the dead. Even
though Rarl isn’t exactly trying to keep the noise down, Lisa still rolls Rarl’s Sneakiness versus the
Alertness of the dead (which the GM decides is –1). This time Lisa wins and the celebration does not
rouse the spirits of the recently deceased.

SPECIALIST GEAR
Whenever you can invoke your character’s specialist gear in a danger roll, you gain a +2 bonus.

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THE DANGER OF BODILY HARM
When your character is in danger of getting hurt, say by falling off of a steep cliff face or by falling onto a
pit of sharp spikes, failing to avoid the danger may result in a loss of Hit Points. A danger of this sort
should always be worth 2 Hit Points. This is enough damage to have the danger be meaningful, without
being so much damage as to make the danger excessive.

Note that this means that a single action might cause a player as much as 6 points of damage, which is
enough to potentially kill their character. For this reason, I suggest that the GM rarely assign much bodily
harm danger to a single action. It’s cool to do once in a while, but not for every action.

THE DANGER OF FAILURE

I think I’ve been pretty clear that sometimes it’s just not fun for a character to be in danger of failing. But
then again, sometimes it’s really important for that possibility to exist. After all, the game could start to
feel a bit flat and lame if you know your character will be successful at every attempt.

When the danger of failure is one of the dangers a character is about to face, I want you to keep two things
in mind. First, the danger of failure should usually be rolled last. It’s the climatic part of the action.
Secondly, the other dangers should not conflict with the possibility of failure. In the previous example of
Rarl’s party, it would wouldn’t make much sense for the spirits to haunt a town over a party that doesn’t
happen. I mean, sure it could happen, but you’d be stretching the story a bit to make it happen. Instead of
the danger of the spirits haunting the town maybe the danger would be of a spirit or two haunting Rarl. Just
for her inappropriate behavior. That would make sense whether the party happened or not.

WHEN TALENTS TRUMP DANGER

Sometimes the GM might forget what cool powers your character has and might describe a danger that
your character couldn’t possibly succumb to. A character with Bird Feet is in no danger of falling though a
crumbling rooftop. Neither is a Water Breather ever in danger of drowning. If the GM accidentally tosses a
danger at you that one of your talents trumps, just remind him of how awesome your character is, then
invite him to try again.

MULTIPLE CHARACTERS IN DANGER

How do you resolve the danger when more than one character is attempting the same action? There are
three possible ways to roll this out. Which one you use depends on the situation.

When the characters are pooling their strengths and helping each other out, like when everyone is working
together to lift something heavy, have everyone roll and only take the highest roll. When failure on the part
of any one of the characters will bring the danger down on the entire group, like when everyone is trying to
sneak past some guards at once, then have everyone roll and only take the lowest roll. When the danger is
individual, like when everyone is in danger of falling through a crumbling rooftop, everyone rolls and only
those who fail suffer the consequences.

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 Combat
The combat system is virtually unchanged since the last version of the game. However, I want to point out
how character death has changed. Hitting zero HP can kill your character. It isn’t very likely, but it is a
possibility that you need to be aware of.

INITIATIVE
The turn order is determined with a simple 1d12 + Alertness roll. The highest rollers take the first actions.
Initiative is only rolled once per combat. When there is a tie between PCs, then the players should choose
who amongst them goes first. When there is a tie between PCs and NPCs, the ties should go to the PCs.

SURPRISE!
If, due to the circumstances in the fiction, it’s reasonable to assume that one character has surprised
another, then the characters on the sneaky side gain a +5 bonus on their initiative roll.

DON’T LAY IT ON THE GM

Classically, it’s the GM’s job to keep track of who’s turn it is and who’s turn comes after who’s. However,
I don’t want you to dump all that on the GM. The GM has enough to keep track of. You should keep track
of which player goes before you and which player goes after you. Take it upon yourself to know when it’s
your turn and to tell the next player when it’s their turn.

ACTIONS
On your turn your character will get at least one action. Some talents will provide your character with
bonus actions under certain circumstances. Some talents will provide you with additional action choices.
There are five basic actions that any character can perform: Attack, Move, Push, Show Off, and Assist.

ATTACK
You may choose to attack anyone in the same arena as your character,
Armor & Target Number
or anyone in an adjacent arena if your character is wielding a ranged
weapon. Roll 2d10 versus the target number corresponding to your Uber 16
target’s armor class. Add in any bonuses you may receive from the Very Heavy 14
Arena and from any Awesome Tokens you want to spend. If you hit Heavy 12
Light 10
the target number or beat it, you do damage. Usually 1 point. If you None 8
miss, then no damage. Next turn.

Spending Awesome Tokens you have an armor class that’s even better than
Don’t spend any Awesome Tokens until after “Very Heavy”.
you roll the dice. Each one you spend gives you
either a +2 bonus on your roll or +1 damage. The Face Die
Feel free to mix and match. Say you rolled a 13, One of your two d10s should be red. That’s your
but you needed a 14 to hit that Very Heavy face die. If your face die comes up a 10 and
armor class. You can spend one Awesome Token you’ve hit your target, you’ve hit them in the
to bump your roll to 15 and then two more to do face. You deal an additional point of damage.
two extra points of damage.
Rolling Extra Dice
Armor Class & Target Number Sometimes you’ll have the opportunity to roll
There are five possible target numbers, four of more than two 10-sided dice. Like when you’re
which are represented by types of armor you can wielding a light weapon. In these cases, roll all
wear. The fifth armor class, “Uber” is not a kind the dice at once but only take the best two dice to
of armor to wear. It’s a place marker for when add together.

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MOVE
You may move your character into any adjacent arena as your action.

PUSH
Sometimes you don’t just want to move, you want to bring an enemy or two with you. Assuming that they
don’t want to make this move, they each get to roll their Size against yours. If any of them roll higher than
you, then you’ve failed to move at all. Therefore, it’s generally safer to try to push one enemy at a time.
And generally only when they’re a little bit smaller than you.

SHOW OFF
In order to gain a tactical advantage, your character attempts something
dramatically foolish. The particular flair and drama is up to you. But be Awesome Token Table
impressive. Roll 1d12 plus Daring to see just how impressive and useful Roll Tokens
your action was. Compare your roll to the Awesome Token Table and 16 or higher 5
take the appropriate number of Awesome Tokens for yourself. If you roll 14 or 15 4
12 or 13 3
lower than 8, you’ve opened yourself to trouble. Give a single Awesome
10 or 11 2
Token to an opponent. 8 or 9 1

ASSIST
Mechanically, Assisting is similar to Showing Off. However, instead of doing something foolish for
yourself, you’ll do something helpful to gain someone else some tokens. Roll 1d12 plus your Alertness.
Compare your roll to the Awesome Token Table and give the appropriate number of Awesome Tokens to
any other single player who’s character is in the same arena as yours. Don’t forget to describe how you’re
helping (or trying to help) that other character.

DAMAGE
When your character is reduced to zero hit points, they’re out of the combat. They may not necessarily be
unconscious, but they can’t add anything to winning the combat either. There are no negative hit points in
this game. Zero is as low as you go.

MERCY
You’ve fought the high priest and all his goons and you’ve won. But now you’re not sure if you really
want to kill him. If only he would promise to be good, you’d really much rather just send him on his way.

At the end of any combat scene where the adventurers stand victorious, the players may elect to let their
enemies live. If you like, you can make the lives of your enemies dependant on a single promise or action.
Demand that they let their prisoners go. Ask them to swear an oath to your gods. Anything that can be
done here and now, in this scene, is probably acceptable. However, just because you’ve got them at knife-
point doesn’t mean that they have to give in to your demands. That’s up to the GM. Of course, if they
refuse your demands you’re still free to finish them off.

MOOKS
Not all NPCs are created equal. Some are just nameless goons that are thrown into combat to fall on the
pointy end of your sword. We will call these faceless masses mooks, and we’ll use a couple special rules
for them.

A Mook always has crappy weapons. They have no favored arenas and no special effects.
A Mook only gets 1d10 to attack. Unless they’re attacking as a group. In that case, roll a number of
d10s equal to the number of Mooks in the attack, adding together the best two.
Mooks never have face dice.
Mooks only have 1 hit point each. When you do more than 1 damage to a single mook, you kill a
number of mooks equal to the damage dealt. Assuming there are that many mooks in the arena.

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ARENAS
An arena is a place where you fight. Different arenas have different advantages for different weapons. An
arena might be a road, a field, a busy city marketplace, or a deep watery cave. Over the course of a combat
we’ll probably see several different arenas come into play. You might have your character run from the
middle of the city marketplace to the top of a nearby building to get a better shot with her bow. Your target
might then take refuge inside a nearby shop, forcing you to move into the attic of that shop to get your shot.
We might define each of those places (the marketplace, the top of the building, inside the shop, and in the
attic of the shop) as completely different arenas, each with different attributes and each with different
connections to other arenas.

ARENA TYPES
There are five different categories for arenas: Hazardous, Tight, Open, Dense, and Neutral. Most arenas
give a bonus to hit to a different weapon category. This bonus generally reflects the idea that the particular
weapon type has an advantage in this terrain. When you’ve got the right kind of weapon and you’re in the
right kind of arena, gain a +2 bonus to hit.

Hazardous low-ceilinged attic may be tight arenas. Tight

A hazardous arena is one where your footing is arenas give their bonus to light weapons.
bad or one where visibility is low. The
crumbling rooftop of a tall building or a closed Dense
chamber devoid of light are hazardous A dense arena is one where bits of the scenery
arenas. Hazardous arenas give their bonus to regularly get in the way of swinging a weapon. A
reach weapons. wooded path or the middle of a crowded shop
may qualify as a dense arena. Dense arenas give
Open their bonus to heavy and very heavy weapons.
There’s nothing to block your view or your shot
in an open terrain. A field or a long road can be Neutral
open arenas. Open arenas give their bonus to When you just cannot imagine what kind of
ranged weapons. Note that you only get the arena arena it might be, or when it seems like the area
bonus when your target is in the open terrain. might be several different kinds of arenas all at
once, call it neutral. No one gets a bonus in
Tight neutral arenas.
A tight arena is one with very little room to
move. A small bedroom, a narrow hallway, or a

CONNECTIONS
A nearby or adjacent arena is an arena that’s connected to yours. Makes sense, right? Well, there’s different
kinds of potential connections

Regular Move Only or Ranged Only

A regular connection is the default connection. There are some connections where you can either
You can make ranged attacks and move through move through them or you can shoot through
them, in either direction. them, but not both. Arrow slits are an example of
being able to shoot but not move.
One-Way
A one-way connection represents your ability to Barriers
only attack and move from Arena A to Arena B, Sometimes a connection might have some kind
and not from B to A. This might come up when of barrier that has to be overcome in order to
you encounter a particularly slope, a trap open it up. Like a locked door or something. The
door that only opens one way, or maybe a heavy GM may require a successful attribute check to
wind that keeps you from moving in the other get through the barrier. Or something like that.
direction.

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 Healing
The number one way your character is going to loose hit points is through combat. But dangerous actions
can hurt them too. When your character heals they regain all of their HP all at once. How they heal and if
they heal is determined by how many HP they have remaining.

0 HP REMAINING
Your character is on the verge of death. Roll 1d12. If you get a 1, 2, or 3, then your character will need a
healer to survive. Without that healer, the character will die soon. If you get a healer roll 1d12 again. On a
1, 2, or 3, that healer is unable to do anything for you. This is the end of your character’s story. Take a
minute or two to talk about their last few minutes. Or their last few days. After all, your character might not
die on the battlefield. They might die slowly, of infection, over the next couple of weeks. That’s up to you.

Assuming you roll a 4 or higher on either of those rolls, your character will survive. Regain your HP when
you have a scene where your character gets an extended rest and someone takes care of their wounds for
them.

1 OR 2 HP REMAINING
Your character is beaten and bloodied, but they’ll survive. Regain your HP when you have a scene where
your character gets a few days rest and someone takes care of their wounds for them.

3 OR MORE HP REMAINING
You can’t really call this a beating. More like a strenuous workout. You don’t need to be healed as much as
you just need some relaxation. Regain your HP when you have a scene where your character has a good
meal, a good drink, or a good conversation.

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 AdventureConstruction
Adventures will be episodic. Sure you can construct one adventure to build on the events of a previous
one, but these rules are about creating stand-alone adventures that can be shared between groups. Each
adventure contains three very important things: Monsters, Treasures, and NPCs.

TREASURES
Every adventure will have at least one treasure worth stealing. Many adventures will have two or three of
them. Treasures are never casual in their value. The smallest of treasures is valuable enough to feed a
small village for a year.

THE REAL VALUE OF A TREASURE

Whenever you include a treasure, the players need to know what value it has to the characters around it. Is
it an important idol for the local god? Is it a treasured heirloom? Good things or bad things (or both) will
happen to people if the adventurers walk off with the treasure.

USEFUL TREASURE
No treasure is ever useful for adventuring. They’re just XP waiting to happen. A treasure might be a big
golden idol, but it’s never a big golden idol that gives the adventurer +2 to hit.

THE XP VALUE OF TREASURES

Taking and keeping a treasure to the end of an adventure is worth an amount of experience points based on
how famous the treasure is. An unnamed and unknown treasure is worth less than a famous treasure once
owned by a famous person. You can find further details in the chapter on experience points and
advancement.

MONSTERS
Monsters are creatures that do terrible things with terrible consequences. A dragon isn’t necessarily a
monster. A dragon that steals the village livestock is a monster, because it’s messing with the livelihood of
the villagers. Each adventure has at least one monster.

MONSTER STATISTICS
Monsters are here to be killed. So you’ll probably want to know exactly how tough they are and what they
can do in combat. I’m not sure about how to properly balance the monsters against the PCs yet. But I think
it may have to do with the ratio of players to powers. That is, the more players you have, the more powers
you’ll want your monsters to have.

Hit Points Powers

Monsters always have 10 hit points, no matter Each monster has at least one power. Most have
how big or small. more than one. Each power can only be taken
once, unless it’s description says otherwise.
Weapon
Choose a single weapon type for the monster. Attributes
Light, Ranged, Reach, Heavy or Very Heavy. Monsters usually have attributes that add up to
about +10 or +15. A monster never has any
Armor individual attributes that are over +10 and
The base armor class of a monster is Light. usually only has one or two attributes that are
over +5.

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MONSTER POWERS

Throw Minions
Monster chooses a single target and makes an Monster may redirect any successful attack
opposed Size roll. If the monster wins the PC is against it at an NPC or Mook in it’s same arena.
moved into an adjacent arena. This action is a
free action when it follows a successful Attack Heave
action. If the monster’s weapon is a ranged weapon, it
may attack a target up to 2 arenas away. If the
Siren monster’s weapon is not a ranged weapon, it
Monster makes an Eloquence roll against all may attack a target in an adjacent arena.
targets in adjacent arenas. Targets may resist
with Stubborn rolls. Everyone failing their roll Fast
must move into the same arena as the monster. Monster may move once per turn as a free
action.
Entangle
Monster makes the terrain in it’s arena grab hold Internal Fire
of the PCs. PCs attempting to Move or Push out When the monster spends Awesome Tokens, it
of the arena after being entangled must roll Size gains +3 to hit or +2 damage.
vs. 7 or loose their action.
Natural Weapons
Bloodlust Monster gains an additional d10 on it’s attack
Every time monster injures a PC, the monster rolls.
gains a single Awesome Token.
Flight
Frenzied Monster can fly.
Every time monster is injured, the monster gains
two Awesome Tokens. Vicious
Monster may follow a successful attack action
Many Headed with a Show Off action.
Monster may attack once per turn as a free
action. This power may be taken more than Thick Skin
once. Monster has +1 Armor Class.

Impressive Weaponry Hard to See

Monster’s weapons are crazy-big or otherwise Monster has +1 Armor Class.
impressive. Monster does 1 additional point of
damage in every attack. This power may be Secondary Weapon
taken more than once. The monster has two weapon types instead of
one.
Blast
Every foe in the arena is subject to the monster’s Mist Summoner
attack. Compare the monster’s attack roll against Monster may summon a thick cloud of mist,
every PC’s armor class. Divide the damage obscuring vision and making it’s current arena
amongst every PC that had a low enough AC. into a Hazardous arena.

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NPCS
Every adventure should have at least a handful of people to interact with. NPCs don’t have to be just
humans, or even relegated to the PC races of human, bear, snake, and fox. NPCs can be any fantasy race,
even so-called monstrous ones. What separates monsters from NPCs in this game is more than skin deep.

STATISTICS
If you get into a combat or a conflict with an NPC, you’ll want to know how tough they are. Most NPCs
rarely have better than 3 points total in their Attributes, and almost never have better than a +2 modifier in
any single attributes. NPCs never have any powers or talents. At least nothing useful.

RELATIONSHIPS
Every NPC should be related to either a monster or a treasure or both. Maybe the monster is messing with
their life. Or maybe they’re responsible for setting the monster free. Maybe the treasure used to belong to
them. Or maybe they’re in the process of trying to hunt down the treasure for themselves.

With a little luck, by means of relating everyone to the monsters and to the treasures, we’ll find that all the
NPCs are also related to each other. Either directly or indirectly.

GAME MASTERING
This system hasn’t had a great deal of playtesting yet, so I’m still a little up in the air about the best way to
game master it. I know at least one GM has had success using a mostly improv style of running. However,
since he used techniques and resources from outside this document, I’m not inclined to reproduce that
information here. Instead, I’ll try to document how I intend to run the thing the next time I get the chance.

BANGS
In addition to sketching out a monster, treasure, and NPCs, I’ll jot down some bangs. Some little events
that will prod the players into immediate action. The type of events where inaction on the part of the
players is going to have an effect on the situation.

CHAPTER STRUCTURE
I’m going to try using a 3-Chapter structure. In the first chapter I’ll include lots of exposition. By the end
of the first chapter I want the players to at least think they know everything that’s going on. In the second
chapter I’ll escalate. I’ll take the situation I introduced in chapter one and change it. Some of the
information presented in the first chapter may be contradicted in the second chapter. In the third chapter I
expect the players to be off after the monster and/or the treasures. I don’t expect many bangs here, but
there may be more exposition. The final bits of information should come to light.

I know that may not be very illuminating or instructive, but I think it’s the best material I can provide you
before I get to playtest again.

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 XPandAdvancement
As your character kills monsters, defeats characters and acquires treasure, he or she becomes more rich and
famous. And that’s the goal. To become rich and famous. We keep track of your characters wealth and
fame through the single currency of experience points. Or XP for short.

GAINING XP
There are several different ways to earn experience points for your character.

Kill a monster First one down

The XP value of a monster is the sum of it’s If you are the first PC to hit 0 HP in a combat,
attribute points plus five for every power it has. that’s worth +5 XP bonus. This time it’s about
Everyone involved in a fight where a monster your character learning from their mistakes. Or,
was killed gains the full XP value of the monster. at least, getting famous for those mistakes.
There is no XP splitting in this game.
Killing blow
Defeat an NPC If your character makes the attack that drops the
If you defeat an NPC in combat, whether you monster (and only a monster), you gain a +5 XP
show mercy or not, you gain 5 XP. Defeating bonus.
Mooks in combat is worth 1 XP per mook. Like
monster XP, everyone involved in the fight gains Acquiring Treasure
the XP. Don’t split anything. There are three levels to the value of a treasure. A
treasure is either unknown, famous, or legendary.
Fight without Armor It’s worth 10 XP, 20XP, or 50XP, respectively.
If you’ve got the oomph to go through an entire This XP value is assigned to every member of the
fight without wearing any armor of any kind, party who survived the adventure. No splitting.
that’s worth a +5 XP bonus. Note that you only get this XP if you take the
treasure with you at the end of the adventure. If
you lose it or give it away you get no XP for it.

ADVANCEMENT
The more XP you get, the cooler your character gets. When you reach a new level you get to take on a new
talent and add one point to one attribute. You may raise attributes over +5 in this way.

Advancement Table
XP Level
0 1
100 2
200 3
500 4
800 5
1000 Retirement

Retirement?
Yup. Eventually your character will be so rich and famous that it’s time to go home. That’s the end of
their story. Time to start a new character.

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