Minimal Fantasy Game

[David Johansen]

A Very Simple Fantasy Game
This is a game about heroes going on quests, fighting dragons, winning treasures, and rescuing evil sorcerers from the clutches of fair princesses. The game is run by The Master who describes the world, events, and takes on the roles of the foes, strangers, and friends the characters controlled by the other players meet. The game uses simple dice rolls to determine the outcome of events. Only six sided dice are needed. You could buy buckets of miniature figures and build elaborate scenery for them but they don’t really do much in play.

Characters
Nobody’s the best at everything. You get one die in each ability and two dice to assign. You roll these dice whenever you face a challenge. Whoever gets the most of the highest number wins the challenge. Challenges are usually resisted by the same ability that is being challenged. Losing a challenge temporarily costs one die from the ability until you can take a good rest.

Conjure is used to do magic. The harder the spell is the more dice you’ll need to cast it.
Move It lets the magician move things they can see around without touching them. Moving small stuff slowly is relatively easy but fine manipulation at a distance is hard so untying shoe laces and such cost one die. It takes more die to move bigger stuff like a person, two dice for a horse, three dice for an elephant. The stuff usually moves at a walking pace, moving it at a running pace costs one die, moving it fast as a horse costs two dice, and moving it as fast as a bird costs three dice.

Blast It lets the magician throw fire, magical energy, bees, or whatever to kill stuff they can see. Normally Blast counts as one die of shooting but it can hit multiple targets for one die, and can count as more dice by spending more dice.

Summon It lets the magician call up monsters to fight for them. Each die of fight costs one die.

Know It lets the magician get vague and confusing hints by looking in a crystal balls, and reflecting pools. Normally the information is about a day in advance and can be from within a day’s travel but by spending an extra die they can look forward a month or a month’s journey or for two dice they can look forward a year.

Find It lets the magician see specified object’s surrounded in magical light or flames. If the object is out of sight, as in a box or around a corner they will see a bit of a glow through cracks. The type of object must be specified upon casting.

Fake it lets the magician create images and illusions about the size of a person, if the magician can’t see the illusion it’s not going to fit properly into things and will look glitchy. The size of the image can be increased to that of a horse for one die and to an elephant for two dice.

Fight is used to kill stuff up close. You can try moves in fights Feint, Sweep, Smash

Shoot is used to kill stuff at a distance. Snipe lets you attack a single target you can see with all your dice. Volley lets you attack one target per die with one die. Trick lets you shoot around corners, knock weapons out of hands, and fire over obstacles. The big advantage of Shoot over magical Blasts is that shoot never costs you dice.

Move is used to get around. Obstacles can be climbed. Bodies of water swam, beasts rode, barriers jumped, if you want to do fancy acrobatics it costs you one die.
Socialize is used to turn enemies into friends. Foes can be provoked into foolish actions or befriended. Strangers can be befriended, seduced, or subverted. Overcoming particularly strong resistance like trying to seduce a foe costs one die.

Equipment and Accouterments
The characters are assumed to have the proper equipment they need, skilled fighters will have more weapons and armour, magicians will have bigger hats and robes and fancy items, courtiers will have finer clothing and nicer hair. Provisions for long journeys are generally refreshed at each town but long journeys may place the characters in a position where they will starve to death or die but this should always be part of the adventure.

Foes, Strangers, and Friends
The people and monsters the characters meet are controlled by The Master. Most will have one die in each ability but some will have zero. A zero isn’t necessarily indicative of weakness as much as absence. You can’t really fight most mice and bunnies, and a large statue might be immovable.

The Seasons
The year is divided into four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Characters generally try to spend the spring, summer, and fall adventuring and the winter studying, training and healing.

Progression
As the characters have adventures they will become more skilled and powerful. This is represented by moving through a path of progression. On that path the character must first resolve to improve a trait they must then study, practice, experience and triumph to increase the ability by one die. Study and practice must be done during the time between adventures. Thus it will take two seasons to prepare to have experiences on an adventure. The triumph required is that the character overcome a foe or obstacle that is at least their equal with real stakes on the line, a fight to the death or for the hand of the princess or to win a great treasure. Once these four requirements are met, the rating is improved by one die.

Orcs
The foot soldiers of the enemy are dull witted, mean, and ugly. Their variety and coloration abound but they are the most common foes faced. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

Trolls
The monstrous beasts of the enemy are even duller than the orcs and easily tricked but they are deadly in battle. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

Dragons
The flying, fire breathing lizards of fantasy are deadly foes. Conjure 2, Fight 5, Move 2, Shoot 3, Socialize 3.

Champions
The mightiest warriors of the enemy are generally tougher and smarter than the common lot. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 2, Shoot 2, Socialize 2.

Sorcerers
Evil wizards and necromancers are powerful foes. Conjure 5, Fight 2, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 3.

Wolves
Packs of wolves often serve the enemy they can’t be talked to but they’re often smarter than the orcs when it comes to tactics and planning.. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 2, Shoot 0, Socialize 0.

 

[David Johansen]

This came to me as I was lying in my bed last night. It's very minimal. I don't know if there needs to be a perception ability. I don't think there's enough different things for it to do. You could use Shoot I suppose.

 

[David Johansen]

Anyhow, I think this came out of the discussions that go on about "intelligence" being racist and min/maxing stats particularly games where the only acceptable fighter build has an 18 Strength so every fighter has an 18 Strength and it becomes a meaningless thing really. Essentially, the abilities here are really broad things and you either try to be great at one thing or good at two things. I think you'd use Fight for Strength because a humming bird's like Move 5d but Fight 0.

One issue is ties when both sides have the same number of the highest roll. Here I'd suggest both lose a die and the time and have to decide if they're going to give it another go.

 

[thebigh]

Love how much thought you put into your games.

 

[JAMUMU]

Love how much thought you put into your games.

It's always a pleasure to follow David Johansen's line of thinking when he talks about his designs.

 

[sharps54]

We could use more designer notes in games. And let’s be honest with PDFs you can even put the notes in a different layer so those that want to read them can and those that don’t wouldn’t even see them.

 

[Raleel]

I was just discussing this with a co-writer on a project. I’m especially fond of 13th ages sidebar design notes, and I love the idea of having them in a separate layer of the pdf. There is a good chunk of things I’d like to put into those that are not going to be really great for publication due to constraints of layout and printing, but would be super handy for someone to be able to access.

for example, I have a mess of cults I’m working on, and there are design goals I have for them. One might be to illustrate using only one spell and how to make it cover a lot of ground. Another might be to show how to manipulate a bunch of magic parameters, another might be to show how to convert form another system, and so on.

 

[David Johansen]

It's always a pleasure to follow David Johansen's line of thinking when he talks about his designs.

This one just came to me. It probably needs some more information on building encounters and scenarios and some discussion of how combat actually works.

 

[David Johansen]

Anyhow, I've been thinking through stacking and priority and encounter structure. Clearly, the system as written concerns itself solely with results rather than processes or descriptions. That doesn't mean descriptions don't matter. In fact, I should probably make some lists of descriptors for people to choose from and make them mandatory. The thing is that they have no mechanical weight.

Fighting and shooting stack. If ten guys with fighting 1 attack two guys with fighting 5 you can just roll ten dice for each side but everyone on the losing side loses one die. In the case of a stalemate both sides lose one die. This is why most things have one die in their abilities, they can be defeated in a single contest.

Social doesn't really stack, maybe for intimidation, but if ten guys walk up to a girl and attempt to seduce her, that's just not gonna fly. Movement doesn't stack.

For example a horse with Fight 1, Move 3, Shoot 0, Socialize 0 ridden by a knight with Fight 2, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 1 would result in a combined Fight 3, Move 3, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

In terms of sequence and priority the core sequence of play is that the Master describes the situation including the actions of any foes, strangers, and friends. The players declare their response and dice are rolled. Movement (including sneaking) takes priority over Magic and Shooting (including spotting) takes priority over Social and Fighting.

 

[David Johansen]

Here's a bit of an update with some more monsters and a new spell.

Lands Far and Fair
This is a game about heroes going on quests, fighting dragons, winning treasures, and rescuing evil sorcerers from the clutches of fair princesses. The game is run by The Master who describes the world, events, and takes on the roles of the foes, strangers, and friends the characters controlled by the other players meet. The game uses simple dice rolls to determine the outcome of events. Only six sided dice are needed. You could buy buckets of miniature figures and build elaborate scenery for them but they don’t really do much in play.

Descriptions
These rules are very abstract and only concern themselves with outcomes. Never the less, detail is essential to story. Characters should have descriptions of their gear and appearances even though these are not objects that are represented in the rules. A warrior with Fight 3 might be described as having spiked shoulder pads and a big axe or perhaps a pair of wicked, curved swords and a mail shirt. Restricting descriptors to appropriate lists helps to keep the tone of the game intact. A warrior in a speedo armed with a rubber ducky might have Fight 5 but your game will never recover its dignity.

Scenarios and Maps
Being an abstract game lends itself to abstract and even freeform scenario design. Nodes with descriptions and inhabitants are more useful than detailed gazetteers. A twisting mountain path overhung by a cliff on one side and a ravine on the other where dwells a terrible giant might be linked to a dark castle with tall spires inhabited by a lonely old man and various ghosts at one end and a thriving town in a mountain pass on the other. But boxes linked by connection lines are sufficient to the task at hand and require no artistic talent.

Sequence and Structure
Within a scene, the core sequence of play is that the Master describes the location and situation, including the actions of any foes, strangers, and friends. The players declare their response and dice are rolled. Magic and Shooting (including spotting) take priority over Movement (including sneaking) which takes priority over takes priority over Socializing and Fighting.

Characters
Nobody’s the best at everything. You get one die in each ability and two dice to assign. You roll these dice whenever you face a challenge. Whoever gets the most of the highest number wins the challenge. Challenges are usually resisted by the same ability that is being challenged. Losing a challenge temporarily costs one die from the ability until you can take a good rest.

Difficulty Dice
If there isn’t a directly opposed foe, the difficulty of an activity can be decided by The Master and a number of dice rolled to represent it. Of course, no roll is required for common, everyday, risk free tasks. We’re dealing with heroes not clowns. General tasks have a difficulty of one die and genuinely heroic tasks have a difficult of five dice.

Conjure is used to do magic. The more powerful the spell is the more difficult it is to cast. Failure to cast a spell results in the loss of a dice from the character's Conjure score for the rest of the scene. The most basic spells have a difficulty of one die. Conjure descriptors include: big hat, skull cap, beard, amulet, grimoire, stalf, wand, orb, rune, scroll, and robe.

Move It lets the magician move things they can see around without touching them. Moving small stuff slowly is relatively easy but fine manipulation at a distance is hard so untying shoe laces and such cost one die. It takes more die to move bigger stuff like a person, two dice for a horse, three dice for an elephant. The stuff usually moves at a walking pace, moving it at a running pace costs one die, moving it fast as a horse costs two dice, and moving it as fast as a bird costs three dice.

Blast It lets the magician throw fire, magical energy, bees, or whatever to kill stuff they can see. Normally Blast counts as one die of shooting but it can hit multiple targets for one die, and can count as more dice by increasing the difficulty by the same number of dice.

Boost It lets the magician improve or reduce one of another character’s rating by one die per die of difficulty.

Summon It lets the magician call up monsters to fight for them. A basic summoned creature has Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 1, Shoot 0, Socialize 0. These can be increased by increasing the difficulty by one die per point.

Know It lets the magician get vague and confusing hints by looking in a crystal balls, and reflecting pools. Normally the information is about a day in advance and can be from within a day’s travel but by increasing the difficulty by one die, they can look forward a month or a month’s journey or for two dice they can look forward a year.

Find It lets the magician see specified object’s surrounded in magical light or flames. If the object is out of sight, as in a box or around a corner they will see a bit of a glow through cracks. The type of object must be specified upon casting.

Fake it lets the magician create images and illusions about the size of a person, if the magician can’t see the illusion it’s not going to fit properly into things and will look glitchy. The size of the image can be increased to that of a horse for one die of difficulty and to an elephant for two dice.

FIGHT is used to kill stuff up close. You can try moves in fights Feint lets you reduce their Fight by one die by reducing yours by one die, Sweep lets you reduce their Move by one die by reducing yours by one die, Smash lets you cause two wounds by reducing your Fight by one die. Fight descriptors include: hulking, muscular, battle scarred, sword, spear, axe, mace, halberd, bec de corbin, cuirasse, paldron, shield, zwielhander, bascinet, sallet, and hauberk.

Shoot is used to kill stuff at a distance and spot things. Snipe lets you attack a single target you can see with all your dice. Volley lets you attack one target per die. Trick lets you shoot around corners, knock weapons out of hands, and fire over obstacles by reducing your Shoot by one die. The big advantage of Shoot over magical Blasts is that shoot never costs you dice. Shoot descriptors include: long bow, composite bow, crossbow, sling, sharp eyed, and alert.

Move is used to get around. Obstacles can be climbed. Bodies of water swam, beasts rode, foes evaded, barriers jumped, if you want to do fancy acrobatics it costs you one die. Move descriptors include: lean, cat-like, twitchy, swift, long legged, sure footed, graceful, dextrous, and agile.

Socialize is used to turn enemies into friends. Foes can be provoked into foolish actions or befriended. Strangers can be befriended, seduced, or subverted. Overcoming particularly strong resistance like trying to seduce a foe costs one die. Social descriptors include: beautiful, handsome, well dressed, congenial, cheerful, sober, square jawed, and dapper.

Stacking
Fighting and shooting stack. If ten guys with fighting 1 attack two guys with fighting 5 you can just roll ten dice for each side but everyone on the losing side loses one die. In the case of a stalemate both sides lose one die. This is why most things have one die in their abilities, they can be defeated in a single contest.

Social doesn't really stack, maybe for intimidation, but if ten guys walk up to a girl and attempt to seduce her, that's just not gonna fly. Movement doesn't stack.

For example a horse with Fight 1, Move 3, Shoot 0, Socialize 0 ridden by a knight with Fight 2, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 1 would result in a combined Fight 3, Move 3, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

Equipment and Accouterments
The characters are assumed to have the proper equipment they need, skilled fighters will have more weapons and armour, magicians will have bigger hats and robes and fancy items, courtiers will have finer clothing and nicer hair. Provisions for long journeys are generally refreshed at each town but long journeys may place the characters in a position where they will starve to death or die but this should always be part of the adventure.

Foes, Strangers, and Friends
The people and monsters the characters meet are controlled by The Master. Most will have one die in each ability but some will have zero. A zero isn’t necessarily indicative of weakness as much as absence. You can’t really fight most mice and bunnies, and a large statue might be immovable.

Sacks of Loot
The two column accounting system presented here takes into account the various exchange rates between kingdoms and currencies and allows for taxation and scarcity. Okay, not really, in fact the unit of treasure here is a sack of gold and jewels sufficient to feed a family of commoners for a year or support a lord’s manor house for a season. Letting the adventurers set up a manor house as a base of operations is a good way to keep them poor and adventuring.

The Seasons
The year is divided into four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Characters generally try to spend the spring, summer, and fall adventuring and the winter studying, training and healing.

Progression
As the characters have adventures they will become more skilled and powerful. This is represented by moving through a path of progression. On that path the character must first resolve to improve a trait they must then study, practice, experience and triumph to increase the ability by one die. Study and practice must be done during the time between adventures. Thus it will take two seasons to prepare to have experiences on an adventure. The triumph required is that the character overcome a foe or obstacle that is at least their equal with real stakes on the line, a fight to the death or for the hand of the princess or to win a great treasure. Once these four requirements are met, the rating is improved by one die.

Servants of Darkness
It is said the dark lord is a fallen spirit of creation driven by pride and hate. While they cannot create, they can corrupt and disfigure. Their legions of orcs and trolls issue out of the barren wastelands to assault the institutions of feudalism and monarchy.

Orcs
The foot soldiers of the enemy are dull witted, mean, and ugly. Their variety and coloration abound but they are the most common foes faced. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

Trolls
The monstrous beasts of the enemy are even duller than the orcs and easily tricked but they are deadly in battle. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

Dragons
The flying, fire breathing lizards of fantasy are deadly foes. Conjure 5, Fight 10, Move 4, Shoot 5, Socialize 3.

Champions
The mightiest warriors of the enemy are generally tougher and smarter than the common lot. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 2, Shoot 2, Socialize 2.

Sorcerers
Evil wizards and necromancers are powerful foes. Conjure 5, Fight 2, Move 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 3.

Death Lords
Neither alive nor dead, these heavily armoured warriors feel no pain. Conjure 1, Fight 5, Move 2, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

The Living Dead
Some lack the decency to lie down and die when it’s their turn. The living dead are found in graveyards and mausoleums and the eastern mountain nations. It is said there are entire cities of the living dead deep in the jungles.

Skeletons
Lacking the decency to wear even skin, Skeletons are the ultimate nudists. Conjure 0, Move 1, Fight 1, Shoot 1, Socialize 0.

Vampires
The lords of the undead hunt the night for the blood of the innocent. Conjure 3, Fight 3, Move 4, Shoot 1, Socialize 3.

Wraiths
The disembodied spirits of the dead are terrifying. Conjure 3, Fight 2, Move 4, Shoot 1, Socialize 1.

Zombies
Lurching corpses carrying on despite their vast disadvantages. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 1, Shoot 0, Socialize 0.

Animals
Nature is full of big aggressive predators.

Bears
Larger than life and twice as hairy, bears are territorial and aggressive. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 2, Shoot 0, Socialize 0.

Horses
Mostly ridden by knights and maidens fair. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 3, Shoot 0, Socialize 0.

Lions
Big hunting cats are far bolder and aggressive in the worlds of fantasy. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 3, Shoot 0, Socialize 0.

Serpents
Big snakes are poisonous, this is represented by their Conjure ability. Conjure 1, Fight 2, Move 2, Shoot 1, Socialize 0.

Wolves
Packs of wolves often serve the enemy they can’t be talked to but they’re often smarter than the orcs when it comes to tactics and planning.. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 2, Shoot 0, Socialize 0.

The Guardians of the Status Quo

Soldiers
Men at arms in mail hauberks armed with halberds or spears and shields, or crossbows are the rank and file of the armies of feudal stability. Conjure 0, Fight 2, Move 1, Shoot 1, Social 1.

Archers
Yeoman archers are lightly armoured but armed with powerful yew bows and cloth yard arrows. Conjure 0, Fight 1, Move 1, Shoot 2, Social 1.

Knights
Elite, mounted warriors of the nobility fight for king and personal glory. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 3, Shoot 0, Social 2.

Elves
The immortal elves dwell in distant forest and mountain fastnesses. Conjure 1, Fight 1, Move 2, Shoot 3, Social 1.

Dwarves
These short bearded miners are doughty foes. Conjure 0, Fight 3, Move 1, Shoot 0, Social 1.

 

[David Johansen]

I'm a bit torn on damage. As it stands there's this whole question of whether Fight or Shoot declines if you get shot or whacked. Maybe the difficulty of everything should increase by one each time you're hit and when the difficulty is greater than all your ratings you're out. It would explain why some characters can keep talking so long after they've taken a mortal wound.

Which brings up another point: death. In general I think the player should decide what they do to defeated foes, whether they're knocked out, captured, or killed.