Dungeons & Dummies: Man Takes Up The Sword (4 Martial Subclasses + 1 Occult Profession)

Here are a few Warrior subclasses. They are good at punching, avoiding being punched and punch-related stuff in general. Their abilities tie in combat, and aren't usually too helpful outside of it. And never forget that the threat of violence can be as effective as violence itself.

The following stuff (design rule and format) is the same for the Specialists, so when I take the time to write down a few I won't repeat those.

Subclasses design rules:

1. 2 abilities: one is the basic one earned at lvl 1, the other is a Capstone ability earned at lvl 3.
2. The abilities should be at the very least related, if the Capstone ability isn't a straight upgrade of the basic one. 
3. Abilities should strongly define the playstyle and role of the character. A Stormtrooper should be very different from a Barbarian, despite both being Warriors.

Format for Subclasses:
Name:
Basic ability description .
Capstone: capstone description.

Digression: the usual lovely textblurb of suicidal thoughts and design analysis.

Let's get started, shall we?

Here they are.
Frame from The Warriors.

Brute:
Brutes can sustain an extra Injury. They don't get any malus from their first Injury.
Capstone: Brutes don't get any malus from Injuries.

Digression: big bouncers guys who can take more than an hit. Won't stop until they're bleeding their brains out from their noses. Always handy, especially considering how frail characters are in this ruleset.

Barbarian:
Barbarians can enter a Rage freely. During their Rage, they reduce the Difficulty of their attacks by 1 and increase the Difficulty of any incoming attack by 1. During the Rage, they must get close and attack the nearest creature, friend or foe. Ending the Rage requires an Intelligence Saving Throw. At the end of the Rage, a Barbarian gets a +1 Difficulty to every check and can't Rage for 1 hour.
Capstone: Barbarians don't get tired at the end of the Rage anymore, can control themselves during it and can end it freely.

Digression: a little bit on the complex end of the spectrum for Subclasses. Could probably be worded much more simply. Primal rage, utterly emotive and psychologically frail kind of guy, not exactly a Conan-esque übermensch.

Boxeur:
A Boxeur unarmed attack counts as a normal weapon attack. With an action, he can switch his attacks between a Small and a Standard weapon. Boxeurs can take an Affliction and make any attack against them a failure.
Capstone: switching attack type is free. They can make their unarmed attack work like a Big weapon by taking an Affliction.

Digression: probably a little bit on the weak side, I know. But they can't be disarmed at all, and due to not needing weapons they have a few free extra items in their pockets (also boosted by having a built-in Shield). That should be a good enough boost to justify its existence I hope.  Their main gimmick is being versatile at the cost of health, since that's what boxing is about according to my sensei. 

Deadshot:
Deadshots ignore Armor when using ranged weapons against unaware opponents.
Capstone: Deadshots consider any enemy they attacked in the previous round with ranged weapons unaware.

Digression: lethal sniper assassins. A mix of Agent 47 and Martin Riggs minus the martial arts stuff.

That's too little for a blog post. Here is an Occult Profession to make up for that.

Soulinker:
Soulinkers are men who channel their will into lesser creatures, subjugating them and raising them above others of their kind. They trade the freedom of animals for power and kinship.
A Soulinker can undergo a bonding ritual, which creates a relationship between him and a single, non-sentient creature, making it his Bond. He cannot have more a Bond at a time. The ritual takes 6 hours, during which the creature must be at the very least not actively hostile.
After the ritual is complete, the creature is now Bonded. It gets +1 Fighting and +1 to a chosen Skill. The Bonded Creature actions are chosen by the Soulinker.

Digression: as Oprah would say, "YOU GET AN ANIMAL COMPANION, AND YOU GET AN ANIMAL COMPANION, AND YOU GET AN ANIMAL COMPANION". Since Classes are much more succinct, some things that in other games would be part of a few classes should be separated and independent, especially when they could easily fit many archetypes. That means that it's probably a good spot to fill with an Occult Profession. Just add weird, evil-sounding extra elements and it's ready to use.

Dungeons & Dummies: Activities, Combat and Equipment

Oh boi, this is going to get a little bit messy. Not as messy as Magic, mind you.

A little foreword: I’m going to use the same style of my first post about this, so rules + digressions. I swear all the rules stuff is going in a nice document someday. Hopefully soon.

If you know a little about D&D you'll recognize most numbers here. This should make filling any gap I'm too lazy to fill myself easier.

That's what we're talking about today.
Chainmail by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. No idea who made the picture.

Turn-based Chaos, a Crash Course:

Actions are resolved in a structured manner. Exploration actions take roughly 10 minutes, and are used for actions such as picking locks, disarming traps, and moving inside dungeons. 10 minutes is usually what it takes to make 4 times your normal movement in feet while carefully mapping and moving slowly (usually, 120 feet is a room or a corridor segment) or 3 times as much moving carelessly.
Exploration turns are resolved simultaneously.

Digression: I don’t plan on using the term “Exploration Action” anymore, it’s much easier to just write “this takes 10 minutes”. Most Occult Profession actions, for example, take 10 minutes (or multiples of that) for this precise reason. Also I don’t run your games and I don’t know how populated your dungeons are, so remember to add Random Encounter Tables rules on your own (hopefully, something interesting and slightly different for each dungeon).

Combat turns are much faster. Each combat turn is an handful of seconds. Each group of combatants has its own turn. Turn order is decided by each side rolling a d20, and going from highest to lowest. Actions inside a turn are resolved in the preferred order by the whole group.

Digression: I found out I love group initiative. Everything is better: it both allows to make more interesting plans and speeds up turn resolution. Helps keep everyone on their toes, and everyone has much less downtime since they have a say in how to better face each situation (this is also greatly enforced by how frail and limited single characters are, cooperation is the key to survival in hostile environments).

Each character starts with 3 Action to use during their group’s turn. These are reduced by encumbrance. An Action can be used for single, simple thing like moving 30 feet, making a single attack, casting a spell, taking something from your inventory or anything else that can be completed in no more than a few seconds.

An attack against an aware opponents usually has Difficulty 1. Attacks against unaware opponents have Difficulty 0 and on a success immediately fill all the Injuries of the target, forcing a Strength Saving Throw to not die. You count as unaware if you have 1+Fighting opponents around you, or just Fighting if you are unarmed. Allies counter opponents.

Digression: gang up and kill. Only true Conans can fight 4 people at once and emerge victorious. Watch out for when you meet one. Note that this rules only apply to humanoid or otherwise “normal” opponents.

Fighting unarmed counts as a fighting with a Small weapon, except you can’t catch unaware opponents with it, you only inflict 1 Affliction on a Success, and nothing on a failure.

Don't be that guy.
Fallout 4 Fan Art by unknown artist.

Walk Softly and Carry a Lot of Stuff:

Items have a weight and an encumbrance. For every 3 items you carry, you incur in increasing maluses. Some items are bigger than others, and counts as many items carried (like big weapons or tents); while some others are much less significant on their own and count as a single item up to a certain threshold (like arrows).

Digression: encumbrance needs simple, significant and punishing rules. It is the single most important factor that is ALWAYS overlooked in games, because it is always perceived as just boring math that changes your movement speed a little. That is not true when the focus on the game is where it should be in any good OSR game: exploring and living fantastical places, that keep pushing you and consuming your limited resources. That’s also why dungeons are so inherently interesting: they are almost actively hostile places that ask you to make interesting choices every minute. Deciding how much food you’re going to carry in an expedition is the first of those choices, and if you don’t keep track of the weight you can get in with you are stripping yourself of an integral part of the game.

After 3 items, you lose an Action per turn. After 6 items, you additionally get +1 Difficulty for every check you make. After 9 items, you lose another Action per turn. You can never carry more than 12 items worth of stuff on yourself alone. You can drag up to 24 items, but you move 10 feet per action this way and are always unaware during combat. You can stop dragging freely during your turn and return moving normally, declaring which items you leave behind.
A sack with 50 coins of any kind weights like 1 item. Roughly humanoid figures such as characters weight like 9 items (plus the weight of all the stuff they're carrying).

Be practical.
Unknown Survival Backpack.

Digression: dragging rules can be important. You can double your carriable weight at the cost of being unable to do anything apart from crawling around. This can be crucial when somebody is knocked out or when you’re trying to maximize the loot you’re carrying. Also, this makes actually organizing a true expedition, with retinues and helping hands, important on all levels of the game and not just for overland travels. The idea of the party being more than just 3 random sociopaths but an actual functioning expedition of tens of people is extremely thrilling for me, and gives space for retired characters to stay relevant even if they don’t dare the undergrounds anymore.

Items have a Durability and a Wear. Durability a measure of how much an item could keep working under stress; Wear is a measure of how much the item needs maintenance. Whenever an item is used improperly, or after some time, it gets worn out and must check if it breaks. This works like a normal check with Ability Score 10. Wear is the Difficulty, while Durability is the Skill. If the check succeeds, the item increases its Wear by 1, otherwise it breaks down.

Digression: nothing lasts forever, be it your love or your sword. Use your sword improperly (like I use my love) and it will last even less. That’s important to know, a nice and steady supply of swords might be just what you need, especially if you plan to stay light and not bring an extra crowbar. A successful expedition isn’t only determined by how strong you are, but also by how much resources you can commit long term.

Durability is determined by the item material (Wood: 0, Steel: +2, Glass: -1) and the quality of the item (Masterwork: +1, Cheap: -1).

Without proper maintenance, items get wear from time and environment. At the end of each day, the items that have been used and that did not receive maintenance check for Wear. Any item that has not been properly conserved (such as those carried during travel) checks for Wear once a week. Items in a secure place don’t check for wear.

A character can take care of up to 3 items worth of weight during his normal rest. A character spending a day fixing stuff can take care of up to 12 items worth of weight. A character with a proper workshop (like a forge) can take care of up to 24 items worth of weight, and can remove all wear from a single item. Characters can pool their efforts to take care of more complex items.

Digression: that’s another spot where retinues can become crucial even if they are not specifically a part of the ruleset. That reminds me that I didn’t explain Morale rules, but don’t worry they work exactly like Durability and Wear.

Not complex like that, I swear.
DayZ weapon chart from Reddit.

Weapons of Small Destruction:

Weapons are divided in 2 kinds (Melee and Ranged), and each kind has 3 categories, depending on their effectfullness.

Melee weapons can only be used in close quarters (5 feet). They can be Small, Medium or Heavy.

Small weapons inflict 3 Afflictions upon a Success, and have a 50% chance of inflicting 1 Affliction on a failure. They can be easily hidden and used unexpectedly in melee and unarmed combat. They can be unsheated as part of an attack, possibly catching an opponent unaware at the start of an engagement. They weight as 1 item. They are mostly small, potentially lethal weapons like short knives, brass knuckles and so forth.

Digression: small weapons are the least powerful. However they can be used while grappling, that's a big plus. And they can be a really nasty surprise if the enemy haven't seen them. I have no idea how to handle grappling right now. They weight like a sword because they take extra effort to hide them.

Standard weapons inflict 1 Injury on a success, and 1 Affliction on a failure. They are the most common kind of weapons, and are wielded one handed. They weight as 1 item. They are common tools of war like swords, hammers, and so forth.

Digression: this should be the most common kind of weapon around. Expect most people, especially war-ready ones, to carry one of those in the form of a sword. That's what every grandpa has over their fireplace in the old house.

Man takes up the Big Weapon to shield the small wound in his heart.
Berserk Colorized Panel by Kentaro Miura.

Big weapons inflict 2 Injuries on a success, and have a 50% chance of inflicting 1 Affliction on a failure. They are heavy, bulky, unwieldy and frankly improbable weapons, and impose an extra penalty of +2 Difficulty on checks made with them. They weight as 3 items. They are imposing weapons, almost always custom-made, like Zweihanders.

Digression: Big weapons are meant to be a rare sight, especially outside real armies. Think of them as the Dragonslayer from Berserk, except almost nobody fights 2-handed for pragmatic reasons. If you see someone with one of those, you can be quite sure they're not in their right mind. 

Ranged weapons can attack from afar. They take +1 Difficulty for every 60 feet in optimal condition (outside, with no extreme wind and in broad daylight) and +1 Difficulty for every 30 feet in any other condition. The extra Difficulty is always rounded by excess. They only inflict damage on a success. Ranged Weapons can be Traditional, Advanced or Firearms.

Traditional weapons inflict 1 Injury on targets with Light or no armor, and 3 Afflictions on everyone else. They have a maximum range of 180 feet in optimal conditions and 90 feet in other conditions.. Taking the ammo, preparing it, and firing is usually part of a single Action. The weapon and 10 shots weight like 1 item; every extra 15 shots weight like 1 item. They are simple weapons like bows and slings.

Digression: these are the most common, easier to use Ranged weapons. For all intents and purposes, most creatures except big crustacean or something like that will probably be considered as Light armored, so they are good for hunting and so on. Ammo is much lighter than other ranged weapons too, and that's very significant. 

As Advanced as it gets.
Crossbow randomly found on the internet.

Advanced weapons inflict 2 Injuries on target with Medium or worse armor, and 1 Injury on targets with Heavy armor. They have double the maximum range of Traditional weapons, and halve the range penalties. Their ammo is heavy, and requires an Action to be taken and reloaded before firing. The weapon weights like 1 item, and every 5 shots carried weight like 1 item. They are complex weapons like crossbow.

Digression: these are better things. They hurt like a breakup when you're psychologically frail from work, and weight like one in your backpack too. The increased ammo weight and the extra effort to shoot are significant enough to avoid bringing them if not needed.

Firearms inflict 2 Injuries on everyone. They completely ignore Armor. They have no max range, but double all the range penalties due to being unwieldy and rough. Reloading a firearm takes 10 minutes, in order to clean it properly, measure the black powder and load it in. They get Wear every time they are used. Each Firearm weights like 1 Item, and each shot weights like 1 item (due to having to keep everything safe and dry).

Digression: I like firearms, in a Pirates of the Caribbean style (or sorta magic wand style), deadly last resorts. They should probably cause a roll on the random encounter table. Also, make them explode in the face of the user when they break, like a Bugs Bunny's cartoon.

Beatiful and damned, like his armor.
Knight Artorias the Abysswalker from Dark Souls by From Software.

Armor Up:

Armor makes characters harder to hit. Better Armors negate some damage from attacks. There are 3 categories of Armor: Light, Medium, Heavy.
Worn armor doesn’t count towards carry weight. Every armor except for Heavy ones takes 10 minutes to be worn or taken off. You can't benefit from rest while wearing an Armor.

Light armors increase the Difficulty of any attack by 1. They also increase the Difficulty of any movement-related check (like climbing or swimming) by 1. When not worn, a Light armor weights like 1 item. They are usually little more than reinforced pads on clothes, with maybe a metal plate near vital spots.

Digression: I expect most parties to use that kind of armor. People can feasibly move around with it even in particular environments like caves. Also they weight very little when not worn.

Medium armors increase the Difficulty of any attack by 2. Apart from the malus from Light armors, they also make Swimming impossible and impose an extra +1 Difficulty on any check where you roll against Dexterity. They weight like 3 items when not worn. They are proper armors, like chainmail.

Digression: these are serious protections. They should be common enough, but should be the best anyone has access to outside of custom-made work to do professional warfare only. Still, they impose some hefty maluses that can make dungeoneering and traveling difficult.

A modern Heavy Armor.
Tachanka from Rainbow 6 Siege by Ubisoft.

Heavy armors increase the Difficulty of any attack by 2. They also ignore the results of failed attacks, and make any weapon attack like a weapon of a worse category. They have all the maluses from Light and Medium armor, and they also halve movement speed and make every movement-related check an automatic failure. They require two assistant to be taken on and off in 10 minutes; with only one assistant the process takes 30 minutes (an Armor step up every 10 minutes); you can’t wear one alone. They weight like 6 items when not worn. They are custom made, extremely thick, full-plate armor, the kind that only a noble or a king could normally afford.

Digression: these are… very situational at best. They are the non-plus-ultra for combat protection, but the movement maluses alone should more than make up for it. I don’t expect many people to use this. A guy with an armor like that is a force to be reckoned with, but can be bypassed by lateral thinking and uncommon tactics (flood the room, run away, climb a rope). Even if you constantly take it on and off as needed, the weight alone should provide a serious challenge to any party.

Shields must be carried in one hand to be used. They can make any attack an automatic failure. Shields get Wear when used. A shield weights like 2 items.

Digression: Shields Shall Be Splintered is a fantastic rule. This is my take on it. I expect Shields to become a commodity almost as important as food, and I expect most Shields to be disposable wooden ones. Probably shields are more useful than armors, but they are also a non-renewable resource that will be consumed much more so I'm ok with that.

Definitely on the bad side of the spectrum.
the sleepy spectrum by tiny snek comics.

I Need Sleep:

Fuck that's a lot of text . I'm sorry about that. Last post about this was well received so I decided to rush a bit the next ones, to allow people to have a better understanding of my whole idea and to give the bare minimum to let everyone play they version of Dungeons & Dummies. Unless you're really into magical mishaps summoning the laments of dead children in the form of a bleeding gnome, you should be set up for trying a few sessions I think.

Dungeons & Dummies: Breeding Perfection (4 Races + 1 Occult Profession)

Arnold K among others gave me the first insight into what makes a good traditional RPG race. So first and foremost, if you want to understand why I made what I made, you should read that. It’s much better than any essay I could hope to write on the matter.

I'm pretty sure you don't need Dungeons & Dummies to use these races. Feel free to use them anywhere, and let me know if I did an halfway decent job and they're actually interesting.

I've got 3 main rules when designing races:

1. They are not going to give numerical bonuses. Nothing should give numerical bonuses at all actually, make everything an incomparable (not just races).
2. They should have strong synergy with themselves. They should have the power to radically change the playstyle of the whole group. Imagine if nobody ever needed to breathe anymore? Or could fly? Now that's a very different way to tackle challenges.
3. They should be useful as one offs. The party should never force a playstyle on each member just because they don't feel like buying rations anymore. A single member of an exotic race can and should still be a useful addition.

I'm going to standardize a little my format here, since I want this to be a quick-access race dump:

Race name:
Race ability.
Little physical description.
A little lore because I love coming up with that stuff.

Digression: because I love explaining myself and I think it helps me better understand what is going on in my head.

Typical humans doing typical human stuff.
Frame from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Humans:
Fuck humans. Humans are boring.
Humans live in clean cities and pursue the goals of Civilization. Fuck those guys, they have nothing to do with adventuring.
Humans’ mothers are hamsters and their fathers stink of elderberries.

Digression: fuck humans. Be an interesting dude instead of a +1 Skill Points dude.

A typical orc doing a typical Orcish greeting.
Fel Orc by Blizzard Entertainment.

Orcs:
Orcs never need fresh food and are immune to poison and disease; they can eat anything remotely organic and be fed without complications.
Orcs are reddish pig-men, with thick hair on their heads and faces and white fangs always popping from their mouths. They are slightly shorter than a man, and in the middle of their faces a big mole-like nose with 4 nostrils is their most recognizable feature.
Orcish nature is defined by loss and war. That's their link with the Divine. Legends say that the first Orcs were spawned from the blood left behind by the first war. The nomadic clans value loss in battle over everything else. They are a bloodthirsty plague, always scouring the land where they walk. Only young Orcs have name: true warriors lose pieces of their names in battle, until they either die or become War incarnate. Orcish legends have no names, and their songs have no words.

Digression: Orcish culture is one of my favourite things I have ever wrote. It's a giant pastiche of warrior culture tropes, actual philosophical theories and my own psychosis. I will make a post only about it someday. I'd love to see a scenario about Orcish sieges and wars, since their supply lines can't really be broken.

Portrait of a Dwarf.
Image from default tileset of Dwarf Fortress.

Dwarves:
Dwarves don't breathe at all. They can never pass out from lack of air, and are immune to any airborne toxin.
Dwarves are much shorter than a man. They are completely covered in thick hair, both males and females. They have no nose, and their hands have only 4 fingers, much thicker than those of a human. Thick hair grows all over their bodies.
The perfect underground dweller is not someone who can see in the dark, but it's someone who shall never suffer from the sulfuric fumes exhaling from the depths. A dwarf is the perfect underground dweller, building his home in a bioluminescent spot and his city in the Fungal Dome. Dwarves enjoy the cramped spaces of their mines-cities, but enjoy the thrill of the unknown much more. Nothing beats Dwarven pride in reaching new places, both physical and spiritual. Some say they made themselves as they are now from clay, to reach the Stars, but the Gods pranked them by stealing just enough dirt to make Mankind, leaving them short of reaching a stool.

Digression: mostly Tolkenian dwarves here, nothing too new. I just figured that underground, fresh air is not really very available, and so I thought that one of the most important things about an underground race would be the ability to breathe anything  (or no need to breathe at all). If I ever run a full underground campaign, expect a lot of pockets of poisonous gas around being opened by a careless guy with a pickaxe.

A typical Goblin reciting typical Goblin poetry.
Randomly found on the Internet.

Goblins:
Goblins vomit a seed each week. The seed can be planted, and after a week it grows into a level-less Goblin. Morale check to see if it is loyal to its parent.
Goblins are very tall, genderless, very thin and green. Their skin is actually a very compact moss that grows over a bark exoskeleton. They have no bones beside this bark. They have long pointy noses, mouths as big as their oversized heads, and two very small ears that look like broccoli on the top of their heads (really on top, like carrot stalks).
Goblins seem to be the personification of bad ideas: obnoxious,  fast-reproducing and hard to exterminate. Goblins are more akin to plants than to other humanoids. Goblin culture is genetically inherited: they have imperfect fragments of their parent's memories and thoughts; this mostly means they remember how their grandfather's farts smell and where is their home. There is speculation about them being an experiment by the Gods to make soldiers out of plants, but no real evidence of this has ever been found.

Digression: they sound like Yoblins, not gonna lie. However, I actually stole the idea from a friend years ago. Not from Arnold, at least this time. Apart from that, I like Goblins. They are disposable, and you are going to have a steady supply of retainers whenever you have a Goblin in your party. This is probably the only race which doesn't abide to my second design rule, but I don't have the heart to cut them from being a core race in my presentation. Big little green rascals, basically the Monty Pythons' version of a Xenomorph. I've got descriptions of goblin cities and ecology somewhere, they'll be a full blown post like Orcs someday.

A Troll lurking in the shadows, waiting for his prey.
Zul'Jin splash art from Heroes of the Storm by Blizzard Entertainment.

Trolls:
Trolls have incredibly fast healing. They recover 3 Affliction with a good night’s rest and recover a full Injury by resting a full day.
They are tall, muscular and their hue is mostly dark blue or not black; most are taller than 2 meters but all of them are visibly hunchbacked. They have big tusks coming out of their mouths.
Trolls are natural born stalkers, with little need for rest and no need for complex operations to patch themselves up. Their tribes mostly live in swamps and islands. Trolls usually don't enjoy the company of others, but have a predilection for practical jokes that end up with grievous injuries (usually that’s no big deal for a Troll). They are considered the greatest masters of ambushes and hit and run tactics, fueled by their stubbornness and their unnatural resilience that allow them to keep pestering their enemies for days as long as they can get a little respite to lick their wounds.

Digression: Trolls are probably the least useful race as a one-off. A whole party of Trolls has an incredible potential in optimizing time, since as long as they have supplies they can basically never take more than a day off. This will probably be much less true if the whole party isn’t composed exclusively of Trolls; the fewer the Trolls the less their ability will come in play (unless they are systematically the only ones taking Injuries, but that’s not very likely). I haven’t written much on Trolls, except for a few jokes and a few notable individuals, so I don’t think they will get their own cultural post anytime soon (but I still plan to do it). Yes, they are basically Warcraft Trolls. No, I regret nothing.

I feel like adding something here. Have an Occult Profession, they are very nice.

Soulcatcher:
Soulcatchers harness the lingering conntection between the soul and the freshly left corpse not yet tainted by decomposition and time, to gather the powers of those that are not anymore for use by those that are not ready to depart yet.
They can consume a fresh corpse (dead by no more than 30 minutes) and a full hour to create an Occult Fetish. They can also take 10 minutes to keep a corpse fresh for 6 hours. This can be done at will, resetting the 6 hours each time.
Occult Fetishes are eternal prisons to the earthly link between Soul and Body, keeping the soul anchored to this world and allowing to call for it when the need arises. Occult Fetishes can be invoked to harness their powers. Anyone can invoke an Occult Fetish if they know its true nature. Invoking an Occult Fetish can either grant an extra Skill Point for 10 minutes, grant a Spell Point to be used within 10 minutes, or allow communion with the original creature to ask a single question.
Occult Fetishes weight like 1 Item, and have -1 Durability. They get Wear every time they are invoked. They can take many forms, from talisman to totem, but they are almost always made from the perfectly clean bone, leather and flesh of the original corpse.

Digression: these are basically spooky pokemon trainers that deal in death, corpses and eternal suffering. I guess you now know why I don't think my work is suited for children anymore.

A Soulcatcher asking a dead enemy about his favourite colour.
Witch Doctor by Kashuse Nuage.

Dungeons & Dummies: A Formal Introduction

This was the original starting point.
Frame from Dungeons&Dragons cartoon by TSR.

This is the presentation of a short “fantasy heartbreaker” I wrote some time ago. I’m actually quite proud of it; it has some serious GLOG vibes and I hope I captured half of the simplicity and fun that Arnold K has managed to allow players worldwide to experience. Today I want to explain the basics of it. Some other time I’ll post some more interesting stuff like classes.

Now I’m going to digress a bit on its birth, skip to the end if you’re interested only in the rules. Also, I’m going to make some digressions in the middle of the text because I want to explain (first and foremost to myself) the thought process I used to make this thing. I’ll make a rules-only document if people are interested, since this post is mostly digressions. It will be more complete than this post of course.

My original intended audience.
Orc Child by Blizzard Entertainment.

First things first: I’m not sure if “Dummy” is a derogatory term, it seems to be the equivalent of one of the nicknames I use with my brother in Italian. Sorry if someone is offended by it, I don’t mean to offend anyone.
I called this thing “Dungeons&Dummies” originally because it was born with a very specific goal in mind: to be simple enough to be run for kids and by kids - but at the same time it had to be something familiar enough to allow the transition to more traditional games when (if) they wanted to.
I wanted to create something simple enough that I could run it with my little brother and his friends, and if they liked it I could handle them a few pieces of paper explaining the game, a bag of dice and tell them “Go and make your own fun!” (I’m absolutely not trying to get rid of my brother, I swear). As time passed and as stuff was made I realized that it would not be suited for kids too much, but I also realized I made something that was worth exploring.
It is a “pure” thing in my eyes, one of my dream RPGs come to life almost by accident: nearly leveless and very adept for running the kind of OSR-style things that I love. I actually have developed a bit of a theory about what makes good OSR-style things that I love, but it’s not the right place and time to explain it, so let’s go over the basics of the thing that I still call “Dungeons&Dummies” out of sheer laziness.

My most probable audience.
Ghost by Ghost (I guess).

Back to Basics:

The whole game only uses a d20.

There are 3 Ability Scores: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence. You must assign to each a value from the following list: 6, 8, 10.

Digression: since I wanted everything to be as simple as possible, the 3 stats also double as saving throws and are meant to be interpreted in a broad sense (eg: Strength is to be used also for Intimidation with social skills). Maybe names such as Brutality, Finesse and Smarts are more representative of that, but I still wanted a sense of familiarity with the world most famous RPG. That’s also the reason for using a d20 instead of a more common d6.

Whenever you want to achieve something non-trivial and potentially dangerous (like attacking or climbing), roll a d20 and check it against the relevant Ability Score. You must roll equal or under it in order to achieve a success.
For more complex things, roll more than once (up to a maximum of 5 times), and if any roll fails the whole check fails. The number of times you must roll is called Difficulty.

Having Skills relevant to the check reduces Difficulty. The final number of times you must roll the d20 is Difficulty - Skill. This can actually make the check an automatic success if you go to 0 or below. Skills are broad definition that can be applied to many things, like a profession, but are not absolute: “Sailing” (for anything sea-related or navigation-related or for knowledge about boats) or “Mountaineering” (climbing, foraging, cooking with a campfire) are good example of Skills; “Magic” or “Anything” or “Picking Locks at Midnight” are not.

Digression: only roll if there is an actual chance for failure, and only for actually dangerous or otherwise uncertain things. And while even the best marksman in the world can make a mistake, this is not the real world and the gains in speed and player agency can be great. However, keep in mind that Skills are not that easy to acquire, are limited, and are tied to some choices made during character creation, so nobody can go over everything like a bulldozer. A useful thing would be a fast conversion table for common targets across the editions, eg: a DC 20 roll in D&D5 would probably be a Difficulty 2 check.

Saving Throws work like normal checks with Difficulty 1 and no Skill. They are fully based on the Ability Scores.

Digression: Ability Scores don’t grow. You’re gonna have at best 50% chance to deal with anything that forces a save. Choose your stats carefully.

Two Dwarves, not caring about the miasma from the other's unwashed beard since they don't breathe.
Screencap from the intro to Dwarf Fortress.

Classes, Races and You:

Everyone has 1 Skill Point and a Race. The Skill represents their profession.
Races are exclusive and give a single special passive ability, such as the ability to not breathe at all (Dwarf) or to eat anything remotely organic without risks (Orc).

Digression: I was really inspired by the ideas Arnold K had in his post about designing races. It is really good and offers some excellent insight. I want racial abilities to synergize with themselves first and foremost, and to allow alternative playstyles thanks to that: the Orc is an excellent example, as an all-Orc party never needs to buy fresh food since it can eat rotting carcasses and wood planks all of the time, just like a party of Dwarves can march in a river without any problem. However I also wanted them to work nicely as one-offs: a single Orc can still make a difference in a long travel, due to the sheer number of ration the party needs not to buy; a single Dwarf is still useful to pull a lever inside a room full of poisonous gas.

Adventurers and other important people have a Class and subsequently a Level. A Class has many subclasses. For each Level a character has an Advancement Point, that can be used to obtain a Skill Point or a Magic Point. The maximum level is 3.

Digression: I like low level adventures (actually, I love level-less stuff that remains relevant forever and I think it’s one of the best features that the OSR movement as a whole has, knowingly or not, brought to life), so it makes sense to sticking to what I feel is most interesting to play. The very low number of levels allows that easily, and the little changes between lvl 1 and 3 keep everything very consistent.

There are 2 main Classes: Warriors and Specialists. Each class has many Subclasses.
Warriors are the only ones that get the Fighting skill, and get 1 Point of Fighting each level. Fighting is used for everything fight-related (mainly attacking). They can’t grow any Skill besides Fighting past 1.
Specialists get 2 extra Skill Points each level. They can take any Skill besides Fighting. Their cap on a single skill is equal to 1+their level.

Digression: I’m not going to explain magic today, my drafts are too messy and so am I. Quick recap time. There are no mages or designated casters by design. There is a magic system that allows anyone with the right knowledge and tools to cast spells. This system is meant to convey a sense of danger, dabbling with magical forces is not something one should do carelessly, but at the same time it will allow anyone so inclined to work with them and to make marvelous stuff. Magical things are only found through adventuring, however. I think it gives some good Howardian vibes, or at least “adventuring out in the unknown” vibes.

Spot the Warrior among the Specialists
Star Trek: The Next Generation promotional image by Paramount.

Warriors level up by beating things with a Fighting score equal or better than theirs.
Specialists level up by using a Skill in a check with Difficulty equal to double that Skill.

Digression: I wanted a slight sense of progression, but I wanted it to be linked to tangible actions and I didn’t want levels to be an integral part of characters and progression (at the very least I don't want them to be as impactful as they are in other games). I think this is an acceptable solution, that still gives higher level characters a sensible edge without making them too different from lower level ones.

A third Class exists, that includes all the dangerous and really special things in the world. Those with such a Class have no race (their physical identity is part of their class), can’t usually choose an Occult Profession, and are too distinct from a normal human to be broadly categorized as such. They are fully defined by their Subclass (which is appropriately more interesting than a normal Subclass). An example of such a class is the Greathound, an extremely intelligent dog capable of sentient thought..

Digression: there is still space for Race-as-Class here. It allows you to make some really messed up things and I want messed up things to be part of any game. The Really Good Dog from Arnold K comes to mind, as does something like The Extras or The Clockwork Octopus by Against the Wicked City.

The many Subclasses of the Warrior.
Colorized Berserk panel by Kentaro Miura.

Subclasses, or the art of becoming an artist:

Each character with a Class has a Subclass. Subclasses are a set of two extra abilities, usually active in nature, gained at Level 1 and Level 3. For example, the Stormtrooper is a Subclass of Warrior that can attack freely at the end of a movement; at Level 3, it can attack at any point during the movement (effectively moving, attacking, moving again to up it’s full movement); a Subclass of Specialist is the Packrat, which can carry 3 extra items at Level 1 and 5 extra items at Level 3 (for a total of 8 extra items).

Digression: Subclasses are like Glog classes but with ketamine. They can be made up on the spot, since they are basically 2 thematic skills of different power (or a skill that gets upgraded). That’s a very important to me, since it allows people to come up with interesting concepts at the table and be able to effectively interpret one by boiling it down to one or two core factors. I was thinking about calling them Specializations, but it caused confusion with the Specialist.

At Level 2, each character gains an Occult Profession, a single supernatural ability outside of a normal person’s capability and a sign of the adventures he’s been through. For example, a Necrocrafter can make occult fetishes out of fresh corpses that allow him to temporarily obtain a special ability from a slain foe. A character can choose to forego an Occult Profession and instead boost all his Ability Scores by 2.

Digression: not magical in nature. These are cool, nice ways of spicing up characters, with useful extra abilities, that can help make your characters more distinct and give you more interaction with the world and the weird lore surrounding it. Or you can be the boring Fighter with +2 Strength, your call. 

Sticks and Stones:

Each character can have up to 2 Injuries. Each Injury is made of 6 Afflictions.
Each Injury will reduce speed by 5 feet and will impose a penalty of 1 Difficulty on every check made.

Characters naturally recover 1 Affliction for each night of rest, or 3 for each day spent fully recovering. Completed Injuries cannot be normally recovered this way; the only way to remove an Affliction from an Injury is a surgical operation: Difficulty is equal to 2 + the current number of Injuries. If the operation is successful, a character can rest for a full week and remove an Affliction from an Injury, allowing normal recovery afterwards; if the operation is a failure, a character won’t benefit from rest for a week, and will receive 2 additional Afflictions.

Characters that don’t eat a ration’s worth of food each day won’t benefit from rest and will receive an Affliction for each day they don’t eat. Characters that don’t sleep 8 hours a night will receive an Affliction for each day of continuous activity.

A tipical player character after a small skirmish.
Frame by Mad Max: Fury Road.

Digression: Injuries are harsh. That’s the way it was meant to be. Easy to get and very hard to live with. Keep in mind that there is no explicit healing spell, or at least no explicit default magical healing source. You’re gonna have a hard time if you consider your health as just a sack of replenishable HP. I think this better models the kind of game I want, where violence is always an option against anything but it’s always a meaningful choice, and where failure and damage are of very serious concern without creating messy subsystems to simulate lasting injuries. Also a knife fight is relevant for the whole game, not just in the first session, and that’s good: there is no need for escalation in order to create threats for the characters.

Characters with 2 Injuries that receive an Affliction have to make a Strength Saving Throw: passing the Saving Throw means that an Ability Scores gets reduced by 1, while failing it means that the characters is dead.

Digression: I haven’t thought of ways to recover lost Ability Scores, except maybe magical ones. I probably should, but at the same time I like retirement mechanics and I don’t like people always fighting to the death, and this seems a nice way of telling the players “maybe your character is getting too old for this shit”. Thus, for the foreseeable future, I don’t plan on adding ways to recover Ability Scores.

Extra digression #1: this post is too long for talking about how to cause injuries. Weapons and equipment will be covered some other day.

Extra digression #2: I was thinking of adding Aggravated Afflictions for special damage types (such as magical ones or fire) that need extra effort to heal. This however sounds a little bit too complicated for all this system and as such I have decided against including them for now. However this is something that I toyed with in my D&D games and have been quite successful with (Dragons don’t just reduce HP, they are extra badass assholes that reduce max HP by giving out aggravated damage that need special rituals to be recovered).

That’s all folks!
I think I wrote too much. Next time I’ll try to write something actually cool and hopefully short, I swear. Like some example classes for this thing, with extra “WTF” in them. A lot of things needed to run a game are still unexplained, so maybe I’ll take the time needed to complete them first (even if I really like coming up with Occult Professions so be ready to hear a thousand of them in the near future).

Frame from Looney Tunes by Warner Bros.