Preface

TODO: This is my RPG system.

Characters

Character creation

Fast character creation:

  • Set your attributes.

  • Choose your dominant physical and mental characteristics.

  • Set your stress_endurance.

  • Choose or roll an example career example_careers.

Advanced character creation:

  • Instead of just choosing a career build your lifepath.

  • Add any fitting talents.

  • Add an optional dark secret.

  • Add any fitting past wounds.

Attributes

PHYSICAL:

BODY

covers brute strength, hardiness, lifting, grappling, pushing through pain, and other actions where raw physical power matters most.
PRECISION

covers speed, aim, balance, careful movement, and other actions where control and exact timing matter most.

Pick either body or precision as your dominant physical characteristic.

MENTAL:

LOGIC

covers learning, recall, analysis, deduction, and staying mentally organized when information is confusing or incomplete.
HEART

covers reading people, trust, conviction, emotional resilience, and acting on instinct in social or stressful situations.

Pick either logic or heart as your dominant mental characteristic.

You can either choose the values; the average must be 10. Alternatively, you can roll dice. Roll 3d6 four times and assign the values to attributes as you wish. These are the maximum values for each attribute.

Each attribute has a max value and a current value. The max value is your normal full rating and only changes when a rule specifically says it does. The current value is the amount you have left right now during play.

At character creation, each attribute’s current value starts equal to its max value. Damage and other effects usually reduce the current value first. A lower current value makes tests harder, because you always roll against the current value, not the max value.

When one of your attributes' current values decreases to 0, your character goes insane or dies; make their death memorable and create a new character.

Stress endurance

PSE

represents bruising, shock, exhaustion, pain, and the body’s ability to keep functioning under pressure. It stands between incoming physical harm and your physical attributes.
MSE

represents panic, dread, emotional overload, and the mind’s ability to keep functioning under pressure. It stands between incoming mental harm and your mental attributes.

PSE and MSE measure how much immediate strain a character can absorb before that strain starts damaging their core attributes. In combat and horror, damage usually reduces these pools first. Only once one of them is reduced to zero does the remaining damage spill over into the related attributes.

Like attributes, PSE and MSE each have a max value and a current value. The max value is the character’s usual limit. The current value is what remains at the moment after taking stress or damage.

Both start at 1. At rest, their current values are equal to their max values. They naturally increase with the hardships of life.

During play, damage often lowers current PSE or current MSE. This does not lower the max value unless a rule specifically says it does. If current PSE or current MSE is restored, it can be raised back up to its max value, but not above it unless a rule explicitly allows that.

After about 10 minutes spent in relative peace, both PSE and MSE reset to their max values.

Lifepaths

A lifepath is a 6-year period from the character’s life. For each lifepath, choose a career for the character.

The first lifepath is always a learning period. By the end of it, the character knows the basics of that career and can make a living from it. Tasks that are part of that career’s daily routine usually do not require a roll unless a lot is at stake.

If a character makes an opposed roll in a field where they are trained against someone who is not trained, the trained character rolls with advantage and the untrained character rolls with disadvantage.

For example, a trained fighter rolls damage with advantage against someone who is not trained in fighting, while the untrained opponent rolls damage with disadvantage. If that trained fighter has to roll for critical damage during the same fight, that roll is also made with advantage, while the untrained opponent would roll critical damage with disadvantage.

For each additional lifepath in an already taken career you can pick a talent that is allowed for that career.

See the appendix for some example careers.

Talents

Talents represent specialized professional strengths. They show that a character has developed expertise beyond ordinary training and can rely on it when the situation fits. A talent should matter in play and provide a clear, meaningful advantage in the right circumstances.

For example, the Duelist talent could mean that armor does not reduce damage caused by the character.

Dark secret

A dark secret is something truly terrible from the character’s past or present that could ruin them if it comes to light. It should be taken seriously. A dark secret is not a small embarrassment or a harmless flaw, but a deeply shameful, dangerous, or unforgivable thing that should haunt the character throughout the game.

During character creation, a player may choose one dark secret to gain +1 PSE or +1 MSE.

Enemy

Someone knows what the character did, or suffered because of it, and now actively seeks revenge, exposure, or ruin.

Past Wounds

A character may begin play with old damage from earlier in life. This represents violence, horror, humiliation, or some other terrible event that left a lasting mark before the campaign began.

During character creation, you may choose to take one or more critical wounds. Each chosen wound must fit the character’s lifepath, background, and personal history.

When you take a past wound, handle it as if the character had already suffered critical damage in play:

  • choose whether it is a physical or mental wound

  • pick an appropriate critical wound from the matching table

  • the wound is permanent unless the game later provides some way to remove it

After taking the wound, use the same improvement rule as in play.

For each critical wound, your PSE or MSE might increase by 1. You can choose which one you try to increase. Roll a d6. If it is higher than your max value of the chosen SE, increase it by 1.

For each mental critical wound, your MSE might increase by 1. Roll a d6. If the result is higher than your max MSE, increase max MSE by 1.

This means old suffering can make a character harder to break, but only by leaving behind visible or lasting damage.

Do not pick past wounds casually. Every extra PSE or MSE should come with a real scar, impairment, obsession, fear, or other consequence that still matters in play.

Tests

To test your abilities during the game, roll a d20. The test succeeds if the roll is lower than or equal to the tested attribute’s current value.

For easy tasks, roll with advantage: roll twice and choose the better result. For hard tasks, roll with disadvantage: roll twice and choose the worse result. The same advantage and disadvantage rules can also be used for damage rolls.

In general, do not roll for things that are part of someone’s daily routine unless a lot is at stake.

Combat

Roll a precision check. If you succeed, you start combat; otherwise, the enemy goes first. You immediately roll damage defined by the weapon used. First, reduce the damage by the armor value; then, for each leftover damage point, you have to decrease both PSE and MSE. When PSE is reduced to zero, the leftover damage is deducted from the current value of precision and body.

When you have to decrease the current value of an attribute, you have to roll for a critical damage. Make a test on your dominant physical attribute. If you fail the roll, you gain a physical critical damage.

For each critical damage, your PSE or MSE might increase by 1. You can choose which one you try to increase. Roll a d6. If it is higher than your max value of the chosen SE, increase it by 1.

Flesh wounds are temporary. Minor and major injuries have lasting effects.

Table 1. Physical critical damage
damage severity gunshot stabbing/slashing/biting crushing/bludgeoning burning gore

1

Flesh wound

graze

shallow cut

knocked over

singed

retching

2

through-and-through

cut or laceration

massive bruising

peeling

laceration (badass scar)

3

Minor injury

bullet remains inside

stabbed

sprained (extremity)

blistering

mangled (fingers)

4

bone fracture (extremity)

slashed (face, loss of ear)

concussion/dazed

large burn

flayed (partially)

5

internal bleeding

severed (fingers)

dislocated shoulder

3rd-degree burn

severed (hand or foot)

6

major injury

bone fracture (chest)

severed (hand)

broken (collarbone)

still on fire (extremity)

severed (limb)

7

gushing artery

severed (limb)

broken (arm, leg, hand)

flesh sloughed off

impaled

8

lethal wounds

massive hole

throat slit

split open (skull)

engulfed

disemboweled

Horror

When you suffer mental damage, first reduce the damage by your stability; then, for each leftover damage point, you have to decrease both PSE and MSE. When MSE is reduced to zero, the leftover damage is deducted from the current value of logic and heart.

When you have to decrease the current value of an attribute, you have to roll for a critical damage. Make a test on your dominant mental attribute. If you fail the roll, you gain a mental critical damage.

For each critical damage, your MSE might increase by 1. Roll a d6. If it is higher than your current max MSE, increase it by 1.

Table 2. Critical damage from horror
damage wound

1

nervous, jumpy

2

nervous, jumpy

3

adrenaline shock, regain 1d6 SE

4

overwhelmed, coward, frightened

5

nightmares, loss of confidence, deflated

6

doomed, haunted

7

death wish, catatonic

8

rage, heart attack
overwhelmed

1d10 minutes of disadvantage on all rolls
coward

1d10 minutes; make a mental save to engage in violence
frightened

1d10 minutes; take 1 mental damage when encountering a threat
nightmares

1d10 days; cannot sleep well; make a luck roll to recover SE
loss of confidence

1d10 hours; lose one talent
deflated

1d10 hours; take 1 mental damage whenever an ally fails a save
doomed

1d10 days; add +1 to mental save rolls
haunted

1d10 days; night visits in dreams or visions. It will make demands soon. Make a luck roll to recover SE
death wish

24 hours; make a mental save or attack any enemy or stranger; SE resets
catatonic

unresponsive for 2d10 minutes; SE resets
rage

1d10 minutes; BODY + 1d6, PRECISION + 1d6, advantage on all damage rolls; SE resets. Attack any enemy; if none is found, attack an ally. Deal 1 mental damage to all allies
heart attack

1d10 hours of disadvantage on all rolls; MAX BODY - 1

Social Attack

A social attack is a high-pressure social conflict where both parties are forced to take part and cannot simply walk away. It should be used for scenes such as a public debate in front of an audience, an interrogation, a formal accusation, or any confrontation where social pressure, duty, fear, or circumstance keeps both sides engaged.

If either side can safely leave, refuse to answer, or otherwise avoid the exchange, it should usually not be treated as a social attack. Social attacks are for situations where staying in the conflict matters and where losing has immediate social, emotional, or practical consequences.

The same rules apply as in horror, but a social attack ends when the first mental critical damage is inflicted.

The default damage is d4.

Depending on the situation, the critical damage could take many different forms. You should consider the following common effects for many situations:

  • both sides receive the enemy dark secret

  • the loser has to roll a mental save or attack the other party

Table 3. Critical damage from social attack
type of situation effect

public debate

the loser is publicly discredited, loses the support of the audience

seduction

you cannot resist the temptation

interrogation

the loser reveals a secret, betrays an ally, or breaks under pressure

humiliation

the loser flees, lashes out, or loses standing with the audience

intimidation

the loser backs down, obeys, or freezes instead of acting

accusation

the loser panics, blurts out more than intended, or turns on an ally

Critical Wounds

Critical damage is the immediate harm suffered in the moment. Once that critical injury is cured, stabilized, or otherwise no longer the main problem, it leaves behind a lasting critical wound.

Whenever a character finishes dealing with critical damage, they must take one fitting critical wound from the appropriate table. Physical critical damage leads to a physical critical wound. Mental critical damage, including the fallout from horror and social attacks, leads to a mental critical wound.

Pick the wound that best matches the fiction. If you want uncertainty, you can instead roll 1d12 on the appropriate table.

Physical critical wounds

roll wound fictional effect mechanical penalty

1

Bad leg

A limp, twisted knee, or damaged ankle makes movement visibly uneven.

Disadvantage on running, climbing, and balance-related precision tests.

2

Ruined hand

Broken fingers, crushed joints, or nerve damage leave one hand weak or stiff.

Disadvantage on precision tests that rely on grip, fine control, or two-handed weapon use.

3

Bad shoulder

The shoulder pops, grinds, or flares with pain under strain.

Disadvantage on grappling, lifting, and heavy melee attacks.

4

Damaged eye

Lost depth perception, blurred sight, or a blind spot affects aim.

Disadvantage on ranged attacks and sight-based precision tests.

5

Deafened ear

One ear is badly damaged, leaving the character half-deaf and easily surprised.

Disadvantage on hearing-based precision or logic tests, and on checks to notice danger before it is seen.

6

Cracked ribs

Breathing hurts, twisting hurts, and every hard impact threatens to reopen the injury.

Disadvantage on body tests involving exertion, and lose 1 current PSE after any fight.

7

Facial disfigurement

A torn face, broken jaw, or severe scar changes how others react on sight.

Disadvantage on first-impression heart tests and formal social attacks.

8

Chronic pain

The wound never fully stops hurting and flares up under stress.

The first body or precision test in each dangerous scene is made with disadvantage.

9

Tremor

The injured limb shakes when precision matters.

Disadvantage on delicate precision tests, careful tool use, and ranged attacks.

10

Weak lungs

Collapsed breath, smoke damage, or chest trauma leaves the character short of air.

Lose 1 current PSE after sprinting, swimming, or prolonged exertion.

11

Fragile bones

Old breaks and badly healed fractures make the body easy to injure again.

The first time you take physical damage in a fight, take +1 damage.

12

Head wound

Concussion, skull trauma, or lasting dizziness makes the character slow to recover and easy to rattle.

Disadvantage on the first logic or precision test made in each dangerous scene.

Mental critical wounds

roll wound fictional effect mechanical penalty

1

Phobia

A specific trigger causes dread, avoidance, and visible panic.

When confronted by the trigger, take 1 mental damage and suffer disadvantage on the next roll.

2

Paranoia

The character reads betrayal, traps, and hidden motives into every interaction.

Disadvantage on trust-based heart tests and cooperation during social attacks.

3

Night terrors

Sleep brings recurring fear, jolting wakefulness, and vivid memories.

Start each day with current MSE reduced by 1 until it is restored.

4

Rage trigger

Certain insults, threats, or reminders can provoke sudden violence.

When provoked, make a mental save or immediately attack, threaten, or escalate.

5

Dissociation

Under pressure, the character goes distant, numb, and hard to reach.

After taking mental damage, make a mental save or lose your next action.

6

Obsessive fixation

The mind cannot let go of a person, idea, symbol, or fear.

Disadvantage on logic and heart tests unrelated to the fixation when under stress.

7

Loss of confidence

Failure feels inevitable, and doubt undermines every decisive moment.

Disadvantage on the first save made in each dangerous scene.

8

Haunting voices

Whispers, echoes, or remembered words intrude at the worst moments.

Disadvantage on logic tests made under pressure or in silence.

9

Emotional numbness

The character struggles to connect, comfort, or care in the moment.

Disadvantage on empathy- and persuasion-based heart tests.

10

Doom fixation

The character is convinced the worst outcome is already on its way.

Disadvantage on mental saves against fear, horror, and intimidation.

11

Amnesia

Part of the event is gone, blurred, or replaced by fragments and false certainty.

Disadvantage on logic tests about the scene, and the GM may withhold or distort one important memory.

12

Psychosomatic disability

The mind converts trauma into blindness, muteness, numbness, or loss of control without obvious physical cause.

Pick one affected sense or action; all tests relying on it are made with disadvantage.

Luck

Roll 1d6: 1-3 is a failure, 4-6 is a success.

Appendix

Weapons

1d4

fists, or attacks made while impaired with any weapon
1d6

Dagger, Cudgel, Sickle, Staff
1d8

Spear, Sword, Mace, Axe, Flail
1d10

Halberd, War Hammer, Long Sword
1d12

enhanced attack with any weapon
Shield

(+1 Armor)
Helmet

(+1 Armor)
Gambeson

(+1 Armor)
Brigandine

(1 Armor, bulky)
Chainmail

(2 Armor, bulky)
Plate

(3 Armor, bulky)

Damage from horror

Mental damage from horror:

1

something horrid
1d4

particularly horrific scene, minor horror ability
1d6

major horror ability
1d8

events not meant for human eyes

Example careers

These are example careers for lifepaths. Use them as inspiration when building a character’s past.

Village life

Farmer

Works the land, keeps animals, and knows the rhythm of planting, harvest, and hard physical labor.
Midwife

Delivers children, tends mothers, and carries practical knowledge of herbs, bodies, and village gossip.
Fisherman

Earns a living from rivers, lakes, or the sea and knows nets, boats, knots, and bad weather.
Shepherd

Watches over flocks, survives long lonely stretches outdoors, and learns to notice danger early.
Woodcutter

Fells trees, splits timber, and is used to heavy work in rough country.
Hunter

Tracks animals, moves quietly, and lives by patience, fieldcraft, and a clean kill.
Trapper

Sets snares, skins animals, and knows how to survive on the edges of settled land.
Miller

Runs a mill, bargains over grain, and holds a small but vital place in the local economy.
Head of Household

Keeps a family alive through planning, bargaining, and the unglamorous burdens of responsibility.

Medieval town life

Peddler

Travels from place to place selling goods, trading stories, and reading what people want.
Shopkeeper

Keeps a small business alive through counting, bargaining, and knowing the needs of regular customers.
Clerk

Handles records, letters, and contracts and understands the slow power of writing things down.
Runner

Carries messages quickly through busy streets or between villages and survives by speed, nerve, and local knowledge.
Laborer

Takes whatever heavy work is available and endures exhaustion, injury, and poor conditions better than most.
Miner

Works underground in darkness and dust, digging out wealth while living with constant danger.
Ratcatcher

Hunts vermin in alleys, cellars, and sewers, earning poor pay for filthy but necessary work.
Tomb Robber

Breaks into crypts and barrows for coin, relics, or forbidden objects, always risking curses and the law.
Beggar

Survives on alms, pity, and a sharp eye for danger, rumor, and human weakness.
Cutpurse

Lives by stealth, nerve, and quick hands in markets, taverns, and festival crowds.
Hosteller

Runs or serves in an inn, hearing travelers' tales while dealing with drunks, merchants, and secrets.
Chandler

Makes and sells candles, soap, and other necessities, working with smoke, tallow, and stubborn customers.

Military life

Conscript

Was dragged or pressured into service and learned to survive war through fear, obedience, and luck.
Soldier

Fights in formation, follows orders, and knows camp life, forced marches, and ugly discipline.
Archer

Trains to kill at range and understands patience, positioning, and the value of distance.
Scout

Moves ahead of the force, reading tracks, terrain, and ambushes before others see the danger.
Sapper

Digs trenches, undermines walls, and knows the brutal craft of siege work.
Mercenary

Sells skill at arms for pay and has likely changed banners more than once.
Village Sergeant

Keeps rough order among frightened recruits or unruly town militia.
Taskmaster

Keeps order through fear, intimidation, and relentless pressure on weaker workers.
Camp Follower

Lives on the edge of armies, trading, cooking, patching gear, and surviving among desperate people.

Monastic life

Novice

Lives under rule and discipline while learning prayer, obedience, and the daily order of a religious house.
Monk

Copies texts, keeps the hours, and balances spiritual duty with the plain labor needed to sustain the monastery.
Nun

Oversees prayer, work, and care within a convent, often holding more practical authority than outsiders expect.
Scribe

Copies books, letters, and records with patient hands and trained eyes.
Herbalist

Grows, dries, and prepares remedies, poisons, and tonics from a carefully tended garden.
Itinerant Priest

Moves between settlements preaching, performing rites, and carrying doctrine to remote places.
Pilgrim Guide

Leads the faithful along dangerous roads, knows shrines and customs, and keeps hope alive.
Augur

Reads omens, dreams, and strange signs, whether as a true seer or a troubled visionary.

Nobility and court

Page

Serves in a noble household, learning manners, discipline, and the first lessons of war and service.
Steward

Manages servants, stores, and accounts, keeping an estate running through diligence and pressure.
Courtier

Survives on charm, status, gossip, and careful insults disguised as courtesy.
Lady-in-Waiting

Serves a noble household while navigating rank, obligation, and private scandal.
Envoy

Carries messages, offers, and veiled threats between powerful houses.
Elder

Holds local memory, settles disputes, and has seen enough hardship to judge people quickly.
Noble Heir

Was raised with privilege, expectation, and the constant weight of inheritance.

Knights and apprentices

Apprentice Smith

Learns metalwork through heat, repetition, and hard criticism from a demanding master.
Apprentice Mason

Cuts stone, studies structure, and slowly learns how great buildings are held together.
Apprentice Alchemist

Mixes rare substances, cleans dangerous tools, and knows that one mistake can scar or kill.
Groom

Cares for horses, tack, and travel gear, and is at home on the road or in a stable yard.
Squire

Serves a knight in camp and battle, carrying arms while learning what chivalry looks like in practice.
Knight

Fights as an armored elite, trained for war, status, and the harsh burden of reputation.
Tournament Lancer

Specializes in public displays of mounted skill where honor, spectacle, and injury meet.