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.