Simple TTRPG System

 Goals of this Game System

I want a rules lite game. I think rule lite should make a game easy to learn, easy to play, and easy to get into. I want a game that is intuitive and fast. By intuitive I mean that I want players and referees to be able to understand most if not all aspects of the game without having to think about it. By fast, I mean that I want a game that has few and simple rules and mechanics, so that they do not slow down the pacing of the game. I want a nimble minded referee to be able to use their basic understanding of the rules and their own judgment to work out how to make something work.

I also want a game with DIY aspect, and I don't want a game with a huge catalog of player stuff. I like the idea of having a few core things that every character can do, then some blank spaces that the player fills in themselves. I want a game that can do any genre, and any setting. I believe the referee and the players should collaborate and create classes, races, magic and powers that suit an intended setting and tone.

Rather than make a game that tries to emulate or simulate reality, I want to make a system that has its own consistent internal logic that makes enough sense in spite of any concessions it makes of reality, and without asking much of the audience's suspension of disbelief.

Further, I want a minimalistic set of "core rules" that contain all of the instruction you need to do anything and everything, with the option to the referee to add or subtract to the rules based on their judgment and creativity. You don't need tables and chart. In addition to the rules of the setting that the game takes place in, this includes powers, spells, monsters, and special items for player's characters.

Attributes and Attribute Rolls

Each character has six attributes, described below. Your attributes are measured with either a 0, or a bonus or penalty, for example, +1, -2, etc. I believe these six words I chose describe every aspect of an ordinary person that is important for playing a role-playing game. At character creation, players and the referee may discuss methods of generating numbers for their stats, and how to assign those number to their attributes. 

⦁ Strength represents your brawn.

⦁ Intelligence represents your brains.

⦁ Agility represents your nimbleness, coordination and reflexes.

⦁ Health represents your stamina and hardiness.

⦁ Perception represent how well you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel.

⦁ Will represents intangible traits, such as faith and personality.

When characters act or make an action, the referee may call for an attribute roll to determine if a character succeeds or fails. Example "Make a Strength Roll," or "Roll Intelligence," etc. The player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds their relevant attribute, and their skill if applicable (see ahead), and tries to roll equal to or greater than some number representing how difficult the action is, which is determined by the referee.

Attribute rolls may be used actively when the character makes an action, or reactively when the character is acted upon and is able to make a reaction. A referee should observe a "one action, one roll" rule, meaning all actions should be resolved with one attribute roll; Actions should NOT be broken down into multiple rolls. Referees, when in doubt, pick one attribute and roll!

Hit Points, Recovery, and Death

Hit points or HP means how many hits you can take before you die. Hit point loss, also called damage, abstractly represents a wound or injury more significant than a superficial cut or bruise.  This is a low-hit point game, so characters begin with 10 + Health as their maximum Hit Points. Your characters recover 1 + Health lost HP by completing a full night's rest. This represents a person's natural rate of healing. Your setting may also provide some extraordinary ways to more quickly recover lost HP. Your characters are dead at 0 hit points, so play your character like you care what happens to them.

Skill

Each character also has one final stat called Skill, measured by a bonus such as +1, +2, etc., which represents how good characters are at the things they're good at. Players discuss which two of the six attributes they want to be good at, and they may apply their Skill to all or most rolls they are skilled with. At character creation, Skill begins at +1 and may be increased as the character improves.

Character Improvement

The referee and the players should discuss what their characters need to do to improve, and how their characters may improve. In some games, characters have a Level or some such nonsense that increases and then they spontaneously get better at stuff. It's all arbitrary anyway, like Dumbledore awarding house points to Gryffindor at the end of the Philosophers Stone. Instead, set a goal, a milestone, some increment of time, completing objectives, etc. When the players have struggled enough, when they've had enough, when they've faced death enough, tell them they can increase one of their stats by a point or gain a new power, have an in-game character give their character a reward, or let the player discover a powerful item. That's all there is to it. Let conventions be damned.

Weapons and Armor

You may assume all characters can use all weapons, armor, and shields (samples below) or apply logical restrictions to weapon categories. The only fixed restriction is that you must have a +2 in Strength to be able to wear heavy or metal armor without some but not all consequences or penalties (left undefined for the referee's benefit). Armor worn and shields held gives you something called an Armor Bonus which you add to your reactive Attribute rolls rather than your Skill to avoid being hit by some attacks, spells, traps, or other special effects. If an attribute roll was made offensively or to attack, you then roll a damage die, and add a relevant attribute. When in doubt, assume it's a six-sided die.

⦁ Leather or Clothe Armor +1

⦁ Chain or Scale Mail +2

⦁ Plate Armor +3

⦁ Shield +1

⦁ Bare hands or kicks, 1 point of damage

⦁ Improvised Weapon (break on attribute roll of 1), d4

⦁ Peasant melee weapons such as clubs, daggers, staves, d4

⦁ Martial melee or throwing weapons such as Swords, Battle Axes, Maces, Spears, d6

⦁ Longbow, Crossbow, Firearms, d8

⦁ Two-handed melee weapon, d8

⦁ Spell, d10

Magic and Spellcasting

Magic has no resource you need to manage. Instead, when character cast spells, they must succeed on an attribute roll. If you roll a 1 on the twenty-sided die before adding your numbers, something goes wrong determined by the referee including harming yourself or a friend, or a temporary loss of the ability to cast spells. If you roll a 20 on the twenty-sided die before adding you your numbers, a bonus effect, bonus damage, bonus target, etc. is occurs. There is no catalogue spells. DIY.

    Alternatively, spells cost Magic Points (or MP) to cast. MP represents your character's reserve of magic for casting spells. Characters who can cast spells have 10 + Will MP. Spells that have a more significant effect than lacing up your boots cost 1 MP to cast. Spells that either do multiple damage die (or healing die or effects), or hit multiple targets cost 2 MP to cast. Spells that both do multiple damage die and hit multiple targets cost 3 MP.  When MP reaches 0, the character is too tired to cast spells. All spent MP is recovered after the character finishes a night's rest. 

Inventory Management

Characters have stuff to wear, to hold, and to carry around. Players track this stuff abstractly using inventory spaces. Each player gets 20 spaces. One item, one weapon, one armor, one spell, all your money, etc., takes up one space each. Stuff that is logically too big or too heavy to carry, can't be carried around. Stuff that can logically be consolidated, such as multiple pieces of ammo in one ammo container, can, up to a reasonable quantity. 

Turn Order

Many types of scenes may be played in a free-form manner, however, when the game needs a bit more structure, the referee rolls to see who goes first. On a low roll, the referee goes first. On a high roll, the players go first. Turn order is taken clockwise around the table starting with either the referee, or the player to the referee's left. On your turn, you can make one action and one move. The distance a character can move is based on the character, the environment, and the context. For examples, in theater of the mind style of play, a character may be able to move half the span of the room. On a grid with miniatures, the character may be able to move the length of their own hand or pencil 

Conditions

Conditions are left vague and are left up to the referee's judgment for their benefit. Conditions include things like poison, fatigue, suffocation, exposure, disease, restrained, prone, cover, concealment, confusion, etc.

Enemies

        The enemies of the player's characters are controlled by the referee and do not need to follow the same rules or logic of the player's characters. Instead, the referee only needs to worry about three things: 1. how many 10s of hit points they have, 2. damage from their attacks and their variety of attacks, and 3. a third stat we will call their Level. The Level stat is a single number representing both how hard it is to hit them and how hard it is to avoid being hit by them, and also how hard it may be to overcome them in other ways. 8-11 is easy, 12-14 is medium, 15+ is typically hard.

Low Fantasy, Low Magic Setting - Character Creation Rules

 SETTING

The setting is low fantasy and low magic. Most people in this setting will go their entire lives without encountering magic or monsters. Therefore, there are restrictions on race, class, and background.

I am not familiar with all the supplemental books out there. Feel free to approach me for approval with anything from any 5e book, 5e compatible book, or anything really, bearing in mind that if it's magical, it's probably not setting-appropriate.

RACE RESTRICTIONS

The setting is humancentric, meaning the majority of people in the setting are human. The other available races are dwarves, elves, and halflings. These three races are referred to collectively as demi-humans by human scholars, and they are uncommon if not rare in the human-dominant regions. Ignore all racial features, traits, subraces, racial variants, etc. except the following:

1. Everyone speaks common. Demi-humans also speak the language from their culture (i.e., Dwarves speak Dwarvish).

2. Everyone has a movement speed of 30 ft. No need to write this down.

3. Dwarves have advantage on saves vs poison, have resistance vs poison damage, and get a +1 to their max HP each level. Dwarves also have advantage on Intelligence checks with regards to stonework and masonry.

4. Elves have advantage on saves vs charm and sleep, and have proficiency in the Perception Skill. *Note that elves need to sleep like everyone else. Due to their magical nature, only elves have access to the Fighter (Eldritch Knight), Rogue (Arcane Tricker), and Sorcerer (Wild Magic) classes.

5. Halflings have advantage on saves vs frightened, they have proficiency in the Stealth skill, and various logical benefits and penalties due to their small size such as when a Huge or larger creatures make melee attacks against them, the attacker has disadvantage.

6. Most importantly, no one can see in the dark!

CLASS RESTRICTIONS

Not all Classes or subclasses with a magic theme or that suggest magical or supernatural abilities are appropriate to the setting. Some classes and subclasses are available only to elves. If you play a divine spellcaster (cleric, druid), you are playing a religious character; Your powers come from your faith in a deity whom you serve. While other characters may be mercenaries, a divine spellcaster typically has a holy cause.

⦁ Artificers: No artificers. Crafting is antithetical to adventuring, so few adventurers would be able to craft anything of value, and the artificer's flavor tends to be a bit high-tech for the setting.

⦁ Barbarian: You can be a berserker.

⦁ Bards: The bard class is not available because magical music is too fantastic for this setting. If you want to be a musical character, you can. We can assume your character can play a musical instrument, sing, dance, and recite poetry.

⦁ Cleric: You can be a Life (domain) Cleric. PC Clerics are always lawful good, though NPC clerics may by chaotic evil.

⦁ Druids: You can be a Nature (domain) Cleric and call yourself a Druid. The Druid class as presented in the 3e or 5e books and all druid subclasses are too fantastic for this setting. Druids are not restricted from using metal equipment, but they are restricted from creating spell scrolls because theirs is an oral tradition and they consider their knowledge too sacred to be written. PC Druids may be Neutral or Neutral Good.

⦁ Fighter: You can be a Champion or a Battle Master. *Only elves may be Eldritch Knights due to their magical nature.

⦁ Monk: No monks because ki is another form of the supernatural. If you want to be a brawler type or a pugilist, pick any other class with skill proficiency in Athletics and you may wear metal gauntlets or knuckle dusters, for starting damage of d4.

⦁ Paladin: No paladins. Paladins are legendary. Like God commanding Joshua to lead the Israelites to take back the promised land legendary. If you really want to be a paladin, you can play a lawful good religious fighter and I'll let you trade a Fighter class feature for Lay on Hands and another one for Turn Undead.

⦁ Ranger: Rangers do not have any spellcasting in my setting. To compensate, you can be both a hunter and beast master subclasses at the same time, but your choice in beasts is limited to animals that are typical domesticated, such as dogs. Alternatively, you can be a fighter and swap some class skills and features with Ranger, and flavor yourself as a ranger.

⦁ Rogue: You can be the Thief. *Only elves may be an Arcane Trickster due to their magic nature.

⦁ Sorcerer: No Sorcerers. Ordinary people in this setting have no chance of having a magic blood-line. *Only elves may be a Wild Magic Sorcerer due to their magical nature.

⦁ Warlocks: No warlocks. Patrons are too fantastic for this setting.

⦁ Wizard: You cannot be of the Necromancy school because Necormancy is gross, and is regarded as, at best offensive and at worst a crime against god and nature to every good or neutral aligned religion. When wizards level up, they do not get their new spells for free! They must spend the time and money to get new spells as described in the PHB on page 114 in the green section "Your Spell book."

BACKGROUNDS

You can use the backgrounds as inspiration for your character only. Ignore the starting proficiencies, equipment, features, etc. Each player may have a free choice of two proficiencies with either skills or tools that they feel suits their character based on their character's history. You can be any background from the PHB except the Noble or Noble Variant: Knight because you're all peasants - especially you!

If you really want to be a noble, create a story so that you are a former noble, or some noble's bastard offspring who has been not been legitimized, or you're some sort of black-sheep of the family with no chance of being anyone's heir. 

ABILITY SCORES

Ignore the standard ability score generation methods in the PHB, as well as racial adjustments. Do not track ability scores. Instead, only track the bonuses and penalties. All characters can make a net +7 character (net +7 means all your bonuses and penalties add up to +7) by choosing from the list below or rolling a d4. You may assign any number to any ability. Note, if you have a penalty in intelligence, your character is illiterate and cannot be a wizard.

1. +3, +3, +1, +1,  0, -1

2. +3, +2, +2, +1,  0, -1

3. +4, +2, +2,  0,  0, -1

4. +3, +3, +2, +2, -1, -2

STARTING WEALTH BY CLASS

Ignore the starting equipment from your class, although Wizards begin with one spell book which they received from their master or mistress prior to their adventure. Use the Starting Wealth by Class table on page 143 of the PHB to generate your starting gold (alternatively, 3d6 + Wisdom bonus or penalty in gold), then purchase your starting equipment before session one.

Note that in this setting, the primary currency of peasants is Silver Pieces (SP). Once we begin play, wealth will have to be earned. 

Racism in D&D is Bullshit

Most fantasy stories take place in a low tech, low culture society. That's a nice, simple way of saying a less developed society or an under-developed society. In a low tech, low culture setting, it's ordinary for a person to resemble the culture they grew up in, and to reject another culture that is incompatible with theirs, and also to experience culture shock when they encounter a new culture. It's also ordinary for many places to be genetically homogenous because travel is difficult and dangerous, and most people rarely leave the village where they were born. It is therefore ordinary, common, and normal that all elves would be like this and all dwarves would be like that, with the exceptions to these norms being found scarcely in places like an adventuring party, though even there, they may not differ by much. 

Language would also be simpler, probably due to the lack of standardized education and lack of cultural sensitivity. Cultural sensitivity may have been practiced in places with diversity such as port towns or trade towns, but not so much in places with a predominant culture, which would be more places than fewer. Most people having basic education at best would use simple words like kind, kin, folk, and race rather than species, ancestry, or heritage. Examples, the race of man, the race of elves, mankind, elfkind, dwarf folk, elfkin, etc. People would not likely say "in my culture, we do this" when they could say "my people do this."

One may describe this as racism, and they'd be right by definition, that you have a race-based belief, however, I wish no one would call it racism because this is in no way racist against actual races. It's unfair to call such gamers racist unless they're racist against real human ethnicities. If someone overhears one calling someone a racist and they're unaware that the context is a make-believe game, there could be real social penalties for someone. For the record, no, orcs aren't black people at my table, but yes, all orcs are innately stupid and evil at my table, like Nazis. People aren't so stupid that they will play a game of D&D and learn that all races are the same. I think that's a misanthropic position to take, and such people should be as embarrassed to insist that D&D racism leads to real-world racism as people who say that video games cause violence.

If we look at the term white-wash, it means to take something ethnic and change it to make it appeal to white sensibilities at the expense of the ethnic sensibilities. This is a racist term only if you think that it only applies to white people, that only white people can white-wash something. Anyone can white-wash something. I think that modernists trying to change a hobby because all dwarves are like this and all elves are like that by calling it racist are attempting to white-wash D&D for modernists sensibilities. It's a fantasy game and part of its appeal is a period setting. Inserting your modern sensibilities by including diversity and removing racial tension, which is a legitimate form of conflict in any setting and any story, takes away the period setting. It takes away the edge of the game, making it more milk-toast. By normalizing diversity of races in a fantasy setting, it makes the setting feel exotic rather than fantastic. If everything is fantastic, what's fantastic about being fantastic? The extraordinary is now ordinary when tieflings, people WHO LOOK LIKE THE BIBLICAL DEVIL and who are supposed to be very rare, are cute waitresses at the local tavern or whatever.