The referee describes a situation and you tell what your character would do in that context. The referee might ask you to roll a d20-faced die and add a number from your character sheet to see if your character succeeds in its action. If the situation is easy, the result must beat 10 to succeed, if it’s normal, it has to beat 15, and if it’s hard, 20. Either way, the referee describes the new situation, and so on.

Sometimes, the referee might tell you that the situation gives you advantage or disadvantage. Rolling with advantage means you roll twice and choose the best result. Disadvantage is the opposite.

That’s it!

You have three main stats: Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower. Roll 1D6 + 2 for each to determine their value. Strength will determine your endurance and how much you can carry, dexterity will determine your prowess in combat, and willpower will determine you resistance to advercity and how many powers you can have.

You also have as many Hit Points (HP) as your Strength score.

You have an Inventory as big as twice your Strength score and a Psyche as big as twice your Willpower score.

Choose a Character Class. Add the class’s starting equipment to your Inventory, and its skills and spells to your Psyche. Each class level takes a Psyche slot. Note its abilities.

Give your character 1 or 2 Beliefs, which you add to their Psyche. Beliefs are anything worth dying for.

Voilà!

A Skill can be any knowledge, and is stored is your Psyche. When asked to roll for an action, if it would thematically make sense to benefit from one of your skills, the roll becomes easier (a hard roll becomes a normal roll, a normal roll becomes an easy roll, and an easy roll becomes a success).

A Belief can be anything worth dying for, and is stored in your Psyche. If you take a deadly risk for your belief during your adventures, you are be reward when Carousing.

Inventory. You have as many slots as twice your Strength. Inventory slots can be filled with objects. Small items like potions, daggers, and ammunition can be stacked in your inventory in packs of 10 of the same type. If you go beyond your capacity, you become Prone.

Psyche.You have as many slots as twice your Willpower. Psyche slots can be filled with Skills, Class Levels, Spells, Followers and Beliefs. If you go beyond your capacity, you become Dazed. You can only remove things from your Psyche when Carousing.

Turn Order: You act before the monsters unless they have surprised you.

Your Turn: You can move nearby, speak and do one other action, like casting a spell or attacking.

Attacking: The referee will tell you if the target is easy, normal or hard to hit. Roll Dexterity. If you hit, roll your weapon’s damage die and the referee subtracts it from the target’s HP. Reducing a monster’s HP to 0 kills it. A die roll of 20 on an attack means double damage.

On the monsters’ turn, they might attack you. In this case, you’ll have to dodge.

Dodging: The referee will tell you if the monster’s attack is easy, normal or hard to dodge. Roll Dexterity to avoid it. A die roll of 1 on a dodge means double damage.

Dying: When you reach 0 Hit Points, you fall prone and you start dying. If you take damage while dying, you die. If you recover any hit point while dying you stop dying.

On each of your next 3 turns, you can attempt to Stabilize instead of doing anything else. Make a hard Strength roll. On a success, recover 1 HP. An ally can spend their turn making a hard Willpower roll for the same effect if they can reach you with appropriate tools or skills. After 3 turns, if you are still dying, you die.

If you recover from dying, you gain a Scar. If you die, all your companions gain a Trauma.

Scars: Scars take inventory slots and cannot be removed. Note what caused the scar. As long as you have it, you have advantage against that thing.

Traumas: Traumas take psyche slots and can only be removed through risking your own life for one of your beliefs. Note what caused the trauma. As long as you have it, you have disadvantage against that thing.

Healing: A 8 hours rest heals all HP losses and consumes 1 ration for the team. Resting requires shelter and heat.

Time is tracked differently when you travel outdoors or in a dungeon. Dungeons are divided in rooms. Inside a dungeon, any worthwhile action like investigating a room or battling takes 10 minutes. You roll to see if your torches deplete every 10 minutes and the referee rolls for random encounters every 30 minutes. You can cross 10 safe rooms you have explored per 10 minutes, or 3 if you want to be discreet.

The world outside of a dungeon is divided in hexagons. Any worthwhile action like crossing or exploring a hex lasts 6h of the day (Morning, Day, Evening, or Night). The referee rolls for encounters each time you enter a new location, explore a location or rest.

Improvised (wine bottle, chair) 1D4 damage, can be thrown

Light (dagger, javelin) 1D6 damage, can be thrown, can be in off-hand

Medium (sword, axe) 1D8 damage, 1D10 with two hands

Heavy (greatsword, greataxe) 1D12 damage, needs two hands

Pole (spear, halberd) 1D8 damage, needs two hands,
You have advantage when dodging melee attacks from creatures you’ve hit this turn

Two-Weapon Fighting When you roll above 20 with your main weapon, you can also make attack with your off-hand.

Light (darts) 1 damage, can attack twice

Medium (sling) 1D4 damage

Heavy (bow) 1D6 damage, needs two hands

Mechanical (crossbow, musket) 1D12 damage, needs two hands,
must take one action to recharge

Each Armor Point reduces physical damage by 1. Chest protection gives you 1 point. Chest and head protection give you 2 points. Full protection gives you 3 points. A shield gives you 1 extra point. You can’t swim, sneak or jump if you are fully protected.

Each object you find has a certain value assigned by the referee:

• mundane (bag of copper coins)
• useful (bag of silver coins)
• valuable (bag of gold coins)
• treasure (bag of gems)

A bag of coins takes an Inventory slot. When in town, you can trade items from one category for another in the same category (at the referee’s discretion, just say what you are looking for). Alternatively, 4 mundane objects are worth 1 useful object, 4 useful objects are worth 1 valuable, and 4 valuables are worth 1 treasure. More details for the referee here!

You level up when you spend the equivalent of a Treasure Carousing. When you level up:

• Increase your HP by 2 (up to 20 total).
• Increase one of your stats by 1 (up to 10).
• Gain the next level of your class in alphabetical order or take the first level (A) of another class (up to 4 templates total).

When you are back to town, it is time to spend your loot! Choose one of these activities :

In any case, if you have taken a deadly risk for one of your beliefs, you can either remove one of your Traumas, gain a new Skill related to your risky action or obtain a new Follower.

You gain followers by Carousing. Roll 1D6 for each of their stats. Followers can carry 3 objects and have 2 Hit Points. They can gain a class the same way a character levels up. In which case they gain +2 to all stats, and normal HP and inventory.

Some classes can cast spells. They have Spell Dice (SD).

Casting a Spell
Whenever you cast a spell, you choose how many SD to invest into it. The result of the spell depends on the number of [dice] and their [sum].

If a SD rolls a 1, 2 or 3, you don’t lose it. Otherwise, you lose it until you get a night of sleep. You can’t cast without SD.

Every time you roll doubles you get closer to Catastrophe.

Catastrophe
Every time you roll doubles you gain 1 Doom Point. Roll a D20. If you roll equal to or below your doom score, you trigger a catastrophe. Triples give 3 Points, and Quadruples, 6 points. They will end your wizardly career if you don’t quest to avoid your doom.

Sigil
Some spells mention a Sigil. It’s your unique symbol. A spell cast with a Sigil takes 10 minutes to cast, but lasts forever. You can have as many Sigils up as your level.