Simplebeans Gmbook Because Players Don't Read Premise D&D-Like Simple Game for Kids and Adults That Want a Beer'n'pret

SimpleBeans GMbook because players don’t read

Premise D&D-like simple game for kids and adults that want a beer’n’pretzels game. Something you can play to get your RP fix in between better games. This booklet’s got two parts: Mechanics and Philosophy. To play, all you need are the mechanics. Philosophy might help you understand my personal (subjective and wrong) points of view on some things. Not aimed at newbie GMs, but extremely friendly to newbie players. I don’t expect players to read this shit, it’s all on you.

Mechanics Pool of d6es. 6=+2 wins, 5,4= +1 win, 3,2=0, 1= -1 win (like White Wolf games but with d6 instead of d10s). Roll Body/Mind/Soul depending on what stat is required. Turn dice results into wins, apply common sense and weave a tale.

Handy dandy table that you should have written down at the table for first-timers. die wins 1 -1 2 0 3 0 4 +1 5 +1 6 +2

Roll vs. DC means an actor rolls his pool against a set number of wins. If the actor rolled the exact number of wins needed, it was a close call and something bad/interesting happens. Jack needs a 2 to jump this broken bridge. He rolls his full-barra Body stat, and gets 4 wins, easily jumping the gap. Dan needs to jump too, he rolls 2 wins, barely making it and being helped up by the burly Jack. Jeffery the manlet dyel mage rolls 1 win and falls down 3ft to his embarrasment. Laughter all around.

Roll vs Roll determines which actor came out on top, and the win difference is often inflicted as damage upon the loser, or one actor just winning over the other in whatever contest they’ve had. Jack swings at the Orc, rolling his Body stat, and having 4 wins. The orc rolled 2 wins to defend himself. Jack has 2 wins over the Orc, so Jack inflicts 2 damage to the Orc. The Orc attacks Jack and rolls 2 wins, Jack defends and rolls 2 wins. Jack takes 0 damage. Jack wants to trip the Orc, and rolls 3 wins. The Orc rolls 1 win, and is now tripped (but doesn’t take any extra damage because Jack wanted to inflict a status effect, a debuff, not cause direct damage).

Advantage is an extra 1d6 that a character that has the “higher ground” add to his pool. The roll that has an ADV die can remove one natural 1 result.

If an actor has a negative amount of wins (-1 and below), he fucks up somehow. Missing, slipping and falling, alerting more foes, and so on. Don’t do the D&D epic-fail shit on player characters, very rarely do it on foes. Higher stat characters are less likely to get a negative result due to math averages. Dan shoots the bow with his Mind stat, and rolled -2 wins. His arrow misses and hits the metal pot, alerting nearby guards. Whoops.

Is you don’t feel like having players roll something trivial, just take their stat/2; this is the maximum average probability of their pool’s roll. Bob has 6 Body, and he needs a 3 to jump over the fence. Don’t make him roll if it’s not important.

EDAM is Extra Damage that is applied after a successful attack; a character wielding a +3 EDAM sword inflicts 2 damage on an orc. The Orc takes 5 damage. A character with a +5 EDAM sword misses an orc. The orc takes no damage.

I usually use 1d6 as random generators, so 1in6 means a natural 6, 33% or 2in6 is natural 5 and 6; 50% is nat 4,5,6 and so on.

Numerical means just roll and add results. 5d6+3 means roll 4d6, add all results and add 3 at the end [average 14+3 = 17 result]. Notable examples are Initiative (2d6+SPD) and Boss Attacks (Nd6 numerical wins). Body (Warrior stat) Body is a combination of Strength and Agility. Body governs Health (Body=HP), Melee Combat, Poison/Fortitude Saves and Intimidation. Body governs a character using brawn or agility to overcome obstacles, like climbing cliffs. Shields add +1 win vs. Ranged and Melee attacks. Armor adds maximum HP. Intimidation makes the target do one thing for the hero, but the target’s disposition worsens. Nobody likes being bullied. Does not save from Supernatural Poisons or Fortitude checks inflicted by magicians or magical beasts.

Mind (Rogue stat) Mind is a combination of Intelligence and Dexterity. Mind governs Speed (Mind=SPD), Ranged Combat, Reflex Saves against traps/grenades, Knowledge checks, Trickery, Trapfinding and Spotting. Speed governs Initiative, Reaction time and Movement Speed. A GM may call for a reaction speed check. Mind governs a character using a tool to overcome an obstacle, like using ropes and spikes to climb cliffs. Trickery makes someone do one action. If the hero’s lie gets caught, disposition gets lowered. Even in combat, a hero can make a foe attack his friend, or your friend, or retreat, go prone, or anything a good feint/bluff can do. Trapfinding lets the hero find and disarm traps, and Spotting governs their ability to see something in the world. Reflex saves from mundane traps, explosives, grenades, artillery and other things a character can see coming. Does not save from Supernatural magical traps, fireballs and other wizard-cast abilities.

Soul (Mage stat) Soul is the unexplainable force a character possesses, and it allows them to weave Mana into supernatural abilities. Soul governs Mana (Soul=MP), Magical Combat, Magical Saves vs any magical effect, Magical Sight and Compassion. Catalysts (Fetishes/Amulets/Holy Symbols) give +1 win against Magical attacks. Magical Sight lets Mages feel the ebb and flow of magic around you, be it a magical item, creature or a magical trap, and detect magical items or fallout. Magical Sight is locked behind Soul 4. Soul determines how many magical items a character can equip (1 Mag. Item per 1 Soul). An overburdened soul is a risk. Compassion is making someone do something that benefits both parties. Good-natured Diplomacy that deepens friendships. Soul does save you from supernatural spells and other mage malversations.

MP is regained at 1d6MP per 5 minutes of rest.

Leveling up Game starts with either stat-sum 7 *peasant start* or 9 *seasoned adventurers*. Players then allocate this stat-sum to Body, Mind, Soul. Humans can have a minimum stat of 2 and a maximum stat of 6. Non-humans can have a minimum stat of 1 and a maximum of 9. Maximum playable character sum-stat is 18.

Characters start at level 0, with one starting Ability. To level up, a level 0 character has to beat 3 Difficulty 1 encounters. A level 1 character has to beat 6 DIFF 1 encounters to reach level 2. Level 2 character has to beat 9 DIFF 1 encounters to reach level 3. This is where a character has to start taking on higher difficulty encounters to levelup. A level 3 character has to beat 3 DIFF 2 encounters to reach 4; the 4 has to beat 6 DIFF 2 encounters to get to 5; A 5 has to beat 9 DIFF 2 encounters to reach level 6. And the level 6 gets +1 stat point and has to take on higher difficulty tasks.

On every levelup, the character gets a lvlup point with which he can buy new abilities, generic perks, or further improve his current abilities. You can not invest into the same Perk you invested into last levelup, there has to be a buffer of 1 different Perk invested.

Gifts Warrior’s gift give +4HP Thief’s gift give +2 SPD Mage’s gift give +3 MP Sage’s gift give +1 to HP, MP and SPD

Classes aren’t strict. Go wild with your player’s concepts. A magical warrior is a Spellsword, a holy warrior is a Paladin, and an angry warrior is a Berserker. Characters can have any class. #Classes are for roleplay purposes only, the players can make whatever the hell they want and you’re there to veto bad/incompatible designs. Fights Roll for Initiative (2d6+SPD, numerical). Go in order, kill stuff. Or go with the faster, simpler Players first, Baddies second if you’ve got kids at your table, or you’re all too drunk to remember the initiative order. I’m mostly guilty of drunk. Rounds last from 3-10 seconds, consistency isn’t important this isn’t a simulationist system, this is a half-drunken one.

Every actor in combat gets 1 Small and one Big action. #Free actions are shittalking and communicating. Be sure to have 1 round of enemies shittalking the PCs.

Small actions are movement, inventory management, retreiving something from the backpack, drinking a potion from the belt, aiming, taking cover, any action that doesn’t involve an other party. Small actions can grant you an Advantage to a character’s next roll. Small Movement Speed is SPD+1d6 meters for one round.

Big actions are assisting, attacking, shooting, buffing, healing, reading a scroll, casting a fireball, anything important and strenuous. A character can use his Big action to grant +1d6 to an ally’s roll. Big Movement Speed is 1d6+SPD+12 meters, serious hauling ass. Big Actions can be converted to 2 Small Actions.

Trigger actions happen after a foe’s action triggers them, eg. you could provide overwatch to an area, and shoot as soon as a foe finishes his Solo movement action into that area or throw yourself at an attack aimed at your friend. Ripostes, counterattacks, crosscounters, anything an enemy’s action can trigger a readied character to do.

At 0 HP, roll 1d6. On a 1, the character dies. Any other roll, the character lies there bleeding/unconscious for 5 minutes, then dies without first aid. Fantastic. Horrible wounds have a 50% survival chance, then the regular bleed while downed for 5min. A character can do a last-stand action but die at the end of it (#even if he drank a health potion or cast a heal, fuck you).

Quick, simple, D&Dish, hopefully. No attacks of opportunity, no need to measure distance (eyeball/common sense it). Don’t bog it down, kill off wounded foes, have them retreat, keep the table fun. Allow for weird shit or stupid tactics like crosscounters (both sides just roll for damage, no defense involved).

Sprinkle the battleground with interesting traps, hazards, weather conditions, messy muddy land, and so on, that’s always good fun. Pendulum-axes are always a good idea. Hazards are a modifier to a regular battlefield: Half-movement due to steep ledges, rubble or marshlands. Acid/Trap Pits that you can shove enemies in (or get shoved in). Spiked tiles/pillars that you can shove enemies in (or get rekt).

Difficulty, Monsters, Minibosses, Bosses, Traps, Magical Mobs Mutations Difficulty’s the magical number that determines how hard an area/encounter is. Ez (1), Medium (2), Hard (3), Harder (4), Suicide (5), Hell (6), Inferno (7), and beyond... Gold gained is Difficulty x 1d6, be it from chests or mob drops.

Traps DC to spot and disarm are equal to the Difficulty, and the damage it inflicts is equal to Difficulty too. Traps can have extra bells and whistles, like poison, deep holes, blinding powder, whatever. Sometimes they don’t have to do damage at all, they could alarm the nearby foes or hinder movement long enough. Be creative.

Monsters do not roll for attacks/defense, these are static on them. The PCs roll when they get attacked and when they attack the monsters. Monster’s Attack is equal to the Difficulty. Monster’s Defense is Difficulty rounded down. Monster’s health is Difficulty x3. Monster’s SPD is its equal to ATK. Ez Monster has 1ATK, 1DEF, 3HP, Medium Monster has 2ATK, 1DEF, 6HP Monsters can also have a weakness that lowers their DEF by half. Fire Elementals take double Water damage.

Monster Squads, Monsters can bunch up and act as a single, bigger monster for the purpose of Attacking. Every extra monster in the group adds +1 ATK to the base monster’s stats. This can speed up combat exponentionally but brings more risk to the players. Monster squads of 3 monters and above have 2 attacks per round that must target different characters.

Minibosses have +2 ATK and double HP, in every other way they act like regular monsters. They have a Mutation, and a 2in6 chance for one more Mutation.

Bosses roll their ATK (but not like the players do), it’s equal to Difficulty/2 d6es. So a Harder Boss rolls 2d6 of wins. If he gets a 7, that’s 7 wins, just add the dice results, it’s not a dicepool. Boss DEF and Monster DEF’s the same. Boss HP is quadrupled and +10HP is added.

Monsters have a 1in6 chance to be Magical. Magical Monsters are Blue, Red, Gold; Blue monsters get +1 ATK, HP and DEF, Reds get +2 ATK, HP, DEF and Golds get +3 ATK, HP, DEF. Mutated monsters are favored by Hell and are a tough encounter, meaning they can easily kill lower level players, always offer the chance to run away. Blue monsters drop gold and a potion. Red monsters drop 2xgold and a weapon. Gold monsters drop 3xgold and an amulet or ring. Chance for a Blue is 1, 2, 3; Red is 4, 5; Gold is a 6.

Monsters have a 1in6 chance to have a Mutation. Monster Mutations  Armored: Enemies have double HP.  Lifesteal 1: Successfull enemy attacks heal them one HP.  Twostrike: Monsters attack twice.  Elemental: Monsters do elemental damage on regular attacks, gain elemental immunity and gain elemental weakness to their opposite element. Ice Zombies weak to fire, resistant to ice.  Debuff: Successful monster attacks inflict a debuff.  DoubleDMG: 2x damage done.  Immunity: to an element, be it Phys, Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Life, Death, Holy, Unholy.  Blinker: Monsters teleport around.  Leader Ressurection: The pack’s Leader/Miniboss resurrects killed monsters.  Mana Burn: Successful Attacks reduce 1 Mana.  Shimmering Reflect: One round, they reflect all damage done to them. The next round, they don’t.  Elemental Reflect: Monsters reflect an elemental damage type, be it fire, water, whatever.

Gauntlet, Cards and Encounters Gauntlet’s the beer’n’pretzels gamemode of choice. You can play a regular one GM campaign or session, but Gauntlet’s gonna be more fun for non-canon games you don’t intent to turn into campaigns. One of yous is gonna make the base premise of the current game, such as “we’re going to exterminate the undead from the crypt” or “we’re gonna save the prisoners from the Orc camp”.

In the Gauntlet, everyone at the table makes a PC, and the GM’s mantle gets passed around. A deck of cards determines what your PCs will encounter when you kick down that door/enter a new area/get ambushed by. You can change the table up once per session (players don’t like relearning rules). One draw is one encounter, and then the next person draws and GMs that next encounter, and so on.

If the card’s a Spade, there’s a treasure chest there. Roll for treasure. There’s 1in6 chance that monsters are Magical, and 1in6 that they have Mutations. Playing with two decks of cards is hardmode and can get hella freaky.

Card Number Effect 1 and 11, the Ace Draw 2 cards and combine 2 1d6 monsters 3 1d6 monsters + hazard 4 2d6 monsters 5 2d6 monsters +hazard 6 Single Trap 7 A Friend 8 A safe place for a rest 9 1d6 enemies + Trap 10 Three Traps 12, the Jack A solo Miniboss 13, the Queen A Miniboss and 4 monsters 14, the King Boss and Next Level Door Joker Draw 3 and combine

It’s not meant to be balanced, let the PCs escape conflicts. If they run away, remove a card from the XP pool for punishment.

Have some sort of goal, like after 10 encounters/boss defeated you retrieve the artifact/princess, and must now adventure anew (returning the artifact/princess through the wilderness).

1d6 Treasure 1 Potion 2 Weapon 3 Armor 4 Amulet/Ring 5 2 Potions or Scroll 6 Difficulty*1d6 Gold + reroll

There is a 1in6 chance that treasure is cursed/poisoned/sabotaged in some way.

Potions: 1-2 Health Potion, 2-3 Mana Potion, 4 Buff Potion, 5 Poison, 6 Special Potion Weapons: 1-3 Melee Weapon, 4-6 Ranged Weapon Armor: 1-4 Armor; 1-4 Light, 5 Medium, 6 Heavy, 5-6 Shield; 1-4 Buckler, 5 Kite, 6 Tower. Amulet/Ring: 1-4 Regular (2d6*difficulty gold), 5-6 Magical.

Magical Weapons, Armor and so on starts dropping at Difficulty 4. Magical Items with two boons start dropping at DIFF8, and the progression continues every 4th Difficulty...

Equipment and Gear Coins come in Silver and Gold. 10SP = 1GP. 1 Silver piece is a meal at the tavern, and 5SP is lodgings for the night. #A real-world equivalent to a 1SP is 1EUR or $1USD. Eyeball the prices of regular items.

Potion Belt (25SP) has pouches that allow for quick retreival and drinking (a Small Action) of magical potions. It can hold 3 potions. Most characters start the game with such a belt. If a character doesn’t have a belt, drinking a potion is a Big Action. Backpacks (20SP) allow characters to carry more gear into (or out of) an adventure. Anything that can fit is ok, and the pack can’t weigh more than 35kg.

Melee (10-120SP) Four classes of weapons. Your melee weapons of choice limits your max speed. Unarmed characters don't have this penalty. Two-handing a weapon increases the Extra Damage by 50% (rounded up). Light (Rapiers, Spears, Shortswords, Daggers, Knuckles); 2/3 Extra Damage, Maximum Speed 6. Balanced (Swords, Light Axes, Poleaxes, Halberds); +3/5 Extra Damage, Maximum Speed 5. Heavy (Falchions, Heavy Axes, Maces, Billhooks); +4/6 Extra Damage, Maximum Speed 4. Ultra (Mallets, Zweihanders, Claymores); +5/8 Extra Damage, Maximum Speed 3. Weapon material determines bonus EDAM ; iron is the default value, improvised/copper is -2EDAM, steel is +1EDAM, Mithril is +2EDAM, Titanite is +3EDAM, and so on...

Shields (15-45SP) Three different classes of shields and they limit your max speed. All shields grant +1 defensive win vs. Ranged or Melee attacks. Putting spikes on a shield gets you +1 Extra Damage. Bucklers give you +1 Extra Damage and have a max speed of 6. Kite Shields give you +2 Extra Damage and have a max speed of 5. Tower Shields give you +3 Extra Damage and have a max speed of 3. Tower Shields also add +1 Defense win against ranged to nearby allies. Shields maxspeed is improved with higher quality. Steel’s MXSPD+1, Mithril’s MXSPD+2... Characters with shields can take attacks aimed at their allies once per round.

Armor (25-3000SP) Light - +2 Max HP, this is a helmet, gauntlets, leather chestpiece, textile armor... Incomplete armor. MaxSpeed 6. Medium - +4 Max HP, this is armor that covers most of a character’s body. MaxSpeed 5. Heavy - +6 Max HP, this is plate/full armor. MaxSpeed 4. Ultra - +10 Max HP, ultrathick fantasy armor. MaxSpeed 3. Endboss - +20 Max HP, Endboss-worthy armor, MaxSpeed 2. Armor’s maxspeed is improved with higher quality. Steel’s MXSPD+1, Mithril’s MXSPD+2...

Ranged (10-200SP) Ranged weapons don't limit max speed. Thrown give +1 Extra Damage, and can be dual wielded and thrown in pairs. Bows give +2 Extra Damage and can be used multiple times per round. Crossbows give +3 Extra Damage and can be used once per round, and reloaded with a Big Action. Heavy Xbows give +5 EDAM and can be used once per round, reloaded with both a Big and Small Action. Ranged weapons get extra EDAM depending on materail used.

Magic (40SP) Catalysts, Relics, Holy Symbols grant one Defensive win vs. Magic.

Potions, Scrolls, Consumables (20-4000SP) Health and Mana Potions restore 1d6 HP/MP. Antidotes/Holy Water remove debuffs or DoTs. Scrolls, when read, cast a spell without MP cost. This burns the scroll up. Any spell, any idea. Identifying what they do is a DC 3 Soul check. Magical Potions do the same thing as scrolls. Identifying what they do is a DC 3 Mind check. Food/Water restores 1HP if eaten, once per hour. #Meaning it can’t heal you up more than 1HP per hour no matter how much you eat or drink. Fatty.

Magical Items (+200SP per boon) Magical Items have a special property due to a Demonic spirit infused/trapped within. Magic Item Limit: A characters un-modified Soul stat determines how many magical items you can carry. If a character tries to carry more items than he has Soul, he gets demon-possessed and now the GM controls him. Demons have their own tasks and ideas and will use possessed characters to fulfill them, and a possession isn't obvious. A character can, after an hour, try to regain control with a DC 3 Soul check. To make a magical item, you need to trap a demon inside and force it to work for you with a DC 4 Soul check.

Magical Items can also be cursed. They can’t be unequipped without a Remove Curse spell. If they get destroyed, the Demon materializes. Detecting a cursed item is a Soul 4 check.

Magical Items can give different boons, such as: +1 Extra Elemental Damage >+2 Elemental EDAM, +1d6 Elem EDAM +1 DoT/Elemental DoT > +2DoT +1 Passive Stat: +Body (of the Boar), +Mind (of the Fox), +Soul (of the Owl) +1 Passive Stat to two stats: +Body/Mind (of the Wolf), +Body/Soul (of the Bear), Mind/Soul (of the Raven). +1 HP OR MP OR SPD +2 HP +1 Max Speed Limit (applicable to Armors, Weapons or Shields) +1 HP Regen per 5 turns (15~45 seconds) +1 MP Regen per 5 minutes (300sec) +1 Accuracy +2 Accuracy vs. Foe Species (Undead, Demons, Beasts, Humans) +2/+4/+6 EDAM vs. Foe Species Returning (for thrown weapons) Shining (emits light) Finesseable (uses the Mind stat for attacking instead of Body) Brutal (uses the Body stat for attacking instead of Mind)

Magical Items can be Helmets, Amulets, Rings, Armors, Capes, Boots, Belts, Gloves and so on.

Magical or Enchanced Potion Belts can have more slots for potions. Magical Backpacks can hold more loot (space occupied becomes a non issue), or can hold more weight (dramatically increased weight carried without making the pack heavier on the wearer).

Examples Ogre Gloves - ADV on any Strength action. Storm Giant Gloves - Body+1. Elf Cloak - ADV on any Mind use regarding Ranged Combat and Stealth. Elfking Boots - Mind+1. Wizard Hat - ADV on any Soul use regarding Magic. Archmage Monocle - Soul+1. Dove Cross - ADV on any social roll. Blessed Hollow Cross - Soul+1. Lucky Charm - Ignore one attack completely. This charm is then destroyed. Steel Ring - +1DR. DR can not lower damage below 1. Golden Serpent Ring - +1d6 GP found whenever gold is gained. Mage Ring - +1MP. Silver Ring - +1SPD. Clotting Amulet - Take half Bleed damage, autoclose wounds after 1 turn.

Basic Abilities (or Perks) I’ll give you 4 starting abilities for 4 default classes, and some generic perks. Any Ability costs 1MP. Abilities can be improved on levelup.

Warrior -Cleave (hit 3 adjacent targets) -Fiery Shield Slam (stun the target and convert damage done to Fire) -Heavy Strike (+3 Damage) -Warcry (+1 DMG, Buff lasts 3 rounds) Thief -True Shot (+1 Accuracy, +1 Phys Damage) -Flashbang (Blind, Aoe 3x3meters) -Vampiric Stab (+1 Life Steal, 1 Bleed DoT) -Fire Bomb (Fire Damage, AoE 3x3m) Cleric -Healing Touch (Life Elemental “damage” done, +1 Life “damage”) -Wrath of the Gods (Holy Elemental Damage, AoE 3x3) -Cure (Cures disease, poison, anything) -Blessed Weapon (Attacks do +1 Holy Damage for 3 rounds) Mage -Magic Missile (+1 Accuracy, Element Lightning (Air)) -Lightning Bolt (Electrical damage (air), +1d6 Electrical damage) -Fireball (Fire Damage, AoE 3x3m) -Mana Bubble (Nullify any one melee/projectile attack for 3 turns. Any projectile pops it, even rain/sand)

Generic Tough (+2 HP) Thick (+2 HP) Meditative I (+1 MP gained per 5 minutes rest) Thaumaturge I (+1MP) Thaumaturge II (+2 MP, total of +3MP) Twitchy (+1 SPD) Armor-Trained (+1 Max Speed) Dodge (Dodge an attack by rolling 1d6 under your Mind stat; a natural 6 is always a failure) Block (Block an attack by rolling 1d6 under your Body stat; a natural 6 is always a failure) Shield Bashing (Use the shield to bash the foe for 1MP)

Elements Earth, Fire, Water, Air. Any flavor of them, Steel (Earth), Lava (Fire), Ice (Water), Storm (Air). Elemental damage has different modifiers towards different targets; say an Ice Giant takes double Fire damage and no Ice (Water) damage. A Storm Demon takes double Earth Damage. You and your table can discuss what element does how much more (or less) damage to the target. Humans and regular creatures have no elemental damage multiplier.

Holy and Unholy Holy does double damage against any Undead, Demon or other Unholy entity. Unholy does double damage against any Angel or Holy entity. Holy Creatures can’t be damaged by Holy damage. Unholy Creatures can’t be damaged by Unholy damage. Humans and other regular creatures have no Holy/Unholy dmg mult.

Life and Death Energy Life “damage” heals living creatures and does double damage to the Undead/Dead creatures. Death heals the Dead/Undead, and does double damage to the Living. Humans and other regular creatures are counted as living. The Undead and other spooky shadow realm creatures are counted as dead. Machines, Constructs and so on take regular damage from either Life or Death. How to make Abilities A starting Ability has 2 of these Building Blocks; this allows players to customize and make their own abilities (or more likely, you, the GM, will listen to their insane ideas and try to shoehorn them within these rules). When in doubt, steal from video games.

An Ability can be further improved with a Perk Point, granting +1 BuildBlock. This lets players decide if they’re gonna branch out and get more Abilities that have 2 blocks, or buff one ability one block at a time until it’s really grand.

Base Block >Advanced Block > Advanced Block+1 >Advanced-er Block+2 OR >Different Advanced Block > DIF AD BLK +1

Targeting: Extra Target (+1 target effected by the ability used) >3 Adjacent Targets get effected > 5 adj. Targets OR >2 Targets get chained within 10 meters > 3 Chained Targets within 10 meters Area of Effect 3x3 meters radius > AoE 5x5 > AoE 8x8 (Friendly Fire Included, watch your targets)

Damaging: +1 Elemental Extra Damage > +1d6 Elemental EDAM > +2d6 Elemental EDAM Elemental Conversion (This ability does this elemental damage instead of regular damage, such as physical) Damaging +2 (+2 extra DMG) > Damaging +4 > Damaging x2 (Double Damage) Damage over Time (1 dmg per round) > DoT 2 > DoT 3 DoTs are applied whenever the character acts in a turn. #Damage over time goes on until it gets cured or otherwise dispelled, like rolling on the ground vs. Fire or using a bandage vs. Bleed, as a Big Action. An other character can dispell the DoT by using their Big Action.

Utility: Movement Change (Jump up to 3m) > Blink up to 10m Extra Attack via offhand, kick, shield > Extra Attack with anything Lifesteal 1 (successful damaging attack heals 1 life) > Lifesteal 2 > Lifesteal 3 Accurate 1 (actually lowers enemy DEF by 1) > Accurate 2 (DEF-2)

Debuff (is applied to target) > 2 Debuffs (applied at once) #Debuffs last until cured or otherwise stopped, like being blinded is “cured” by spending a Small Action to rub your eyes, being tripped is “cured” by getting up and so on. Blind, Deaf, Tripped, Stunned (Target can’t attack until cured of ailment, half movement speed, -1 DEF) Disarm (target drops weapon, or if monster, suffers -2 damage done) Webbed, Immobilized, Paralyzed (Target can’t move and can’t have an advantage on any attack, -1 ATK) Silence (Can not use abilities) Amplify (Target takes 50% more damage)

Buffs can be personal (using only a Small Action to cast) or can target someone else (Big Action). A character chooses between a single target buff or a whole team buff. Single target buffs get double the benefit. First determine the duration and scope (self vs. party) and invest at least 1 Block.

Buff for 3 rounds > 6 rounds > 5 minutes > 20min > Whole Day OR Buff entire team for 2 rounds > 4 rounds > 3 minutes > 15min > Whole Day

Possible buff effects +1 Elemental Damage to any attack Thorns, 50% of damage reflected back to enemy (the character still takes damage) Remove Debuff > Immunity to Debuffs +1 Speed/HP > +2 SPD/HP Haste 1 (gain +1 Small Action/3rounds) > Haste 2 (gain +1 Big Action/3rounds)

A character can furhter improve the effects of the buff by spending furhter building blocks, such as +1 Elemental EDAM becoming +2 Elemental EDAM, 50% reflected becomes 75% reflect, and so on.

Buffs can become Passives/Auras if a character reserves 3MP(solo) 5MP(whole party) to sustaining the Buff.

Example Perks built via blocks Flaming Cleave (Extra Targets 3 Adjacent Targets [2blocks], Elemental Conversion: Fire [1block]) This takes 3 blocks to achieve, meaning the player took Cleave [2blocks] and spent one Perk point to convert phys to fire damage.

Vampiric Stab (Lifesteal 1 [1block], Damaging +3 [2blocks], Bleed DoT1[1block]) [4blocks total] This ability lets a character stab for +3 damage, bleed 1 the target and gain 1HP for the successful stab; it costs 4 blocks total, meaning it took 3 levelups to get it to here (2 starting blocks + 1 + 1 levelup blocks).

Aura of Flaming Thorns Buff Entire Team Aura [5 Blocks] Thorns 50% [1 Block] and +1 Fire EDAM for the entire team.

Electric Haste Buff for 3 rounds [1block] , Haste 2 [2blocks], +2 Shock EDAM [2blocks]

Aorta Shot DoT 3 (Bleed) [3 blocks], Double Damage [3 blocks]. A death sentence if it connects.

Unorthodox Perks Unorthodox Perks can be anything a Player Character wants to obtain that has no imminent mechanical representation. A character that chooses a Wildman Perk automatically solves any foraging, orientation and such wilderness problems. A character that has the Appraiser perk automatically identifies magical or strange items with no chance of failure. A character that Knows a King... knows a King and can ask for beneficial boons. Philosophical ramblings of a madman

Why only d6es? Haven’t you heard of other dice? Because it’s hard obtaining other dice in thrid-world shitholes like the one I’m in. Also a d20 dice set is around half a day’s pay here. 6D6es are about $0.50 almost anywhere in the world.

Why Tri-Stat? Because it’s simple and quick; and it allows for the quick Melee>Ranged>Magic division. It can be exchanged with STR, AGI, INT, it’s almost intuitive. To make it simpler you could name them Body – Swords, Mind – Bows, Soul – Magic, if you’re playing with kids. Or just call them Swords, Guns, Magics and go easy on the obstacles.

Why don’t monsters roll dice? Because this saves time, the player characters are the true drivers in the world anyway. To further speed this up, monsters can attack as a squad (1st monster’s ATK is base ATK, every extra monster in squad grants +1 ATK). I really dig fast combat. Might take some getting used to, but this makes shit hella fast.

If two monsters with identical ATK and DEF (1 ATK vs. 1 DEF) fight, roll 1d6 and determine who does his 1DMG (or a trip, disarm or stun) to the other, or better yet, handweave it to whatever seems cooler.

Health Points are a character’s ability to avoid lethal hits. It’s mostly luck, good spacing and armor. When a character gets damaged, he takes a small cut or hit, sensing how dangerous it would’ve been if it were a killing blow. Any hit that brings a character below 1HP is a lethal blow, an arrow piercing the stomach or a blade driven deep into the thigh. Such a character is now wounded and bleeding ; if he rolls 1 on a 1d6, he dies of shock/bloodloss. If he survives that, he’s on the ground awaiting first aid or healing magic/potion for 5 minutes, after which he dies. The character is conscious and can call for help or play dead. He can’t attack or move. This is how I view Health.

Really big damage (however a GM rules it, personal is character gets fucked to <= -5HP) means there’s a 2in6 (nat 5,6) chance to survive such a blow.

Mana is slowly regenerated because Abilities are hella good and characters could do with buying potions. Abilities can never regain Mana because this would be too OP, so no Mana Leech or something. No Vancian casting, not differing ability tiers and so on, just a simple pay 1MP to have cool thing happen now. Before I played around with a complex make-your-own-spells systems and they always get out of hand. KISS.

Why Max Speed ? Because I wanted some way to show encumberance, and max speed seems like a good idea to achieve this. An armored up dude has a limit to how fast he can react, and so does a dude with a big heavy weapon. Wizards, Ranged characters and unarmored characters can act first. But the Knights have the potential to do the most damage.

How to achieve fast ? By having low player and low monster HP. The less rounds there are in a combat the faster we can be done with the shit and return to regular camp tales, or we can have more combats in a session. While this does make Initiative the best stat, I think it’s a good tradeoff. A downed player is gonna quicken up your combat, but be careful not to overdo this. Keep the stakes high. For the enemies, have simple enemies that have maybe one spell that they can use. Fill up their other holes with tactics, like taking cover and grouping up. Don’t get bogged down in different calculations in combat, go fast and go hard. Theatre of mind or a paper to draw the battlefield, locations of monsters and cool hazards goes a long way, and is faster than a grid.

If anyone doesn’t remember a bonus they have, that bonus doesn’t count if the dice are already rolled. Tough luck. Feel free to skip players taking too long to determine what they’d do.

Table You have to respect the other people at your table and sometimes default to their explanation or reasoning. It’s collaborative story telling and don’t be afraid to own up to a mistake sometimes. Don’t be a dick and don’t suffer no dick at your table.

What differentiates this shitpile from any other system out there ? The need for speed with just a dash of complexity. I’m not satisfied by other sub-20page systems and one-pagers don’t satiate my autism. I find it a lot more intuitive and I think this is the best I can do with a d6 dice pool. I also wanted a small system that can be played solo (if you are so inclined, it is possible but characters have a very short expiration date), played with rotating GMs in a Gauntlet (one GM per Encounter), and used for an actual longer game too. I’ve spent 4 years making this system, going over 15ish editions and uncounted revisions and edits, and as always, it’s never good enough.

What inspirations did ya steal ? Hot shit there’s a big long list here. Simpled6 and D&D3.5 are my guiding stars, though WFRP2ed, Mouse Guard and Shadowrun are great too. D&D5ed for the Advantage mechanic and many other simple and complex systems I’ve gobbled up over the years. Also, stole a shitload form a wide array of video games, such as Dark Souls, Diablo, Path of Exile, Elder Scrolls games... Uncounted others.

One of my goals was that this system is an easy jumpgate for regular gamers, and I’ve had much success there.