The DM Shortage - Why 5e Doesn't Have Enough

First thing's first, I don't actually know if D&D 5e is suffering from a DM shortage, but this topic gets revisited a lot in the YouTube spaces that I frequent. I can't back up this position. I also can't back up if it's just D&D or all TTRPGs.

There is no published ratio of players to GMs, no official report on DM availability, no formal study on how many people want to GM vs play. WotC, Paizo, Chaosium, Mongoose, and Modiphius have never released this kind of data. So the DM shortage is not a documented fact; it's anecdotal.

The closest thing to a real number that we get is Roll20 which shows that 20% - 25% of users ever run a game on their platform. There's also been snippets of interviews from industry professionals saying DMs are the ones primarily purchasing TTRPG products. This implies that data may exist supporting a gap in players to GMs, but it does not indicate a shortage.

But let's suppose it's D&D 5e in particular with a DM shortage and that every other game has just the right number of GMs (yeah right).

Poor DM Support

When is the last time Wizards of the Coast (WotC) released a supplement book for DMs only? That's my first observation. Not a book for monsters, magic items, settings, or adventures, but tools and instructions to teach GMing and to make GMing easier. For that kind of advice and instruction, people go to the internet. Isn't it weird that amateurs on the internet are the ones capitalizing on this, not the industry professionals? You've got The Angry GM who writes a hell of a blog, advice books by independent authors, and not to mention dozens of YouTube channels with a cumulative thousand hours of advice about prepping and running the game. Where is the official DM support? Are you thinking about WotCs' Sage Advice stuff? Pfft.

Where is Dragon magazine and Dungeon magazine or a successor magazine?

Where is the Dungeon Masters Guide 2 and 3? The ones that break down the internal math that the D&D 5e designers use and teach it to you? It's not there. It's these internet DMs who figured out and taught that 5e's design aims for easy rolls to have a 60% success rate, and hard rolls to have a 40% success rate. The should have come from the designers.

How about DM guidance for problem players? I don't mean the kind of players who are sometimes blatantly rude or disrespectful, I mean the ones who make broken characters who spoil the tension and challenge in every scene, or goofy characters who spoil the tone? Where are the hot tips for world building, making after-session notes, or fast prep? How do I read an adventure and break it down into manageable chunks for my notes and prep? Where are the combat hacks? What if no one understands or agrees on a rule? Conventional wisdom says make a ruling and move on. Are we assuming everyone knows how?

How about basic instructions on how to use the books? Something like:

• Players Handbook (PHB) is for rules reference
• Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) is for instructions on the rules

The PHB lists the rules and defines them, but the DMG explains how to think about them, how to use them, and when not to. You need both. If you're missing the DMG, the rules of the game feels like instructions on how to play, and you get a really rigid, stiff game that eschew DMing skills and DM authority.

To some people, if the official books don't say something, it might not be the legitimate way to play or understand the game. How I described the Players Book and the DMs book above is fair, but it's not explicit in the books; Therefore, some people will never acknowledge this delineation or benefit from it.

GMs Need Authority and Instruction

Maybe the DMG 2 should give the DM more authority so that players aren't walking over them and their games like a door mat? That section should be called Put the Master in Dungeon Master. Did I say section? Maybe it should be a chapter. Players want to pick a spell but it's too powerful? Tell them "not in my game". Players think they should be able to play whatever fantasy race in the book? "Sorry, that doesn't suit my setting". Broken character build? "I'm lowering your ability scores and HP to balance your character". How about a rule that tells players that if they expect the GM to treat their characters seriously, then players should treat the setting and NPCs seriously? And to have respect for game's tone.

Putting the master in Dungeon Master isn't about arbitrary and capricious rulings by a tyrannical DM. It's about clarity, boundaries, and tone protection. It's about being able to establish the kind of game that you can handle running.

DMs, what do you do when the players don't understand what a rule means and they want to fight over it? How about an explicit No Rules Lawyering rule or No Exploiting Weaknesses in the Rules rule? How about a section on game fouls and what to do about them? What does it mean to be That Guy and what do we do about him when he shows up? How about a section on telling players "no" or "not at my table" or "get out"?

How about a section that advises GMs about pacing themselves to avoid burnout or how to prep your players so that their expectations align with your campaign setting? GURPS has a one-page, fillable campaign form that establishes what kind of game you're running. Why not D&D? Where's the official session zero checklist?

The current DM book might cover some things, how about another book to cover them in more depth? How about a section that teaches adventure structure and setting creation? About improv? About creating and portraying NPCs? How about dungeon and wilderness procedure which is actually seriously lacking in D&D 5e. Break this down for me and show me how it works.

DM instruction is a deep well of content, and they put out one dedicated DM book for the 2014 edition and one dedicated DM book for the 2024 edition. They are sorely lagging behind. It's incredible to me.

How about advice or instruction on different playstyles or modes of play? Like the West Marches style of play which accommodates open table. We need an essay about not building broken characters or exploiting weaknesses in the rules because accommodating these specific things contribute to the workload for a GM.

How do you handle adversarial players, competitive players, and interpersonal conflict? How do you manage schedules and communication? When do you kick people out? How do you handle spotlight hogs, joke characters in a serious campaign, or rules lawyers derailing a session? How do GMs teach players the written and unwritten rules? The best that the 2014 book did was tell you in a very corporate way to be respectful. With respect, that's not advice, that's corporate CYA. It lets the corporation wash their hands of any colorful scenarios that might emerge by letting them stand on a ground of "we encourage respect". And let's face it, 9 out of 10 adults don't need to be taught about respect.

GMing 5e Isn't Fun

Ultimately, if you want to get people to do something, incentivize them. IF there is a lack of DMs, that means the incentive isn't there. The only incentive you should need is fun. The problem with DMing for 5e is it's very effortful to do, and it's not proportionately rewarding.

5e Attracts Tourists

This is not intended to be an insult. 5e is not a niche game for niche people, it's a massive game that's intended to have as much broad appeal as possible. That means tourists can access it. Tourist means people without discerning taste, genre literacy, foundational knowledge, or realistic expectations. It's a cultural outsider of the hobby with low or casual interest. The is a not commentary about worth. Not everyone who plays 5e is a tourist, and if you're reading this for fun or if you find this enriching, that's not you. Probably. 5e is generic. It has everything about the fantasy genre without any consideration for identity. Its identity is everything and anything all at once. It asks little of you. It gives tropes and it gives you room to insert your own. That's how you get Big Bird from Sesame Street as a Paladin or a Ninja or a Power Ranger. Or Joe Rogan as a Druid. That's why its generic.

Therefore, it could be that the problem is not the system itself, rather it's the people who are attracted to the system. When you run GURPS or ICRPG, you're running a game that doesn't have as broad reach. GURPS is a game that requires a lot more system understanding and it requires the users to have their own genre conventions because the game offers you hundreds of tiny pieces and asks you to make sense of them. You are expected to make them into something. That requires will, effort, and creativity. It takes time to learn all these pieces and it appeals to people who appreciate an intrinsic reward. People who do this make something special for a small, intimate group of people. That's a sign that the participants are not casuals, noobs, plebs, or tourists. ICRPG has massive appeal but it's too indie and needs to be discovered. It's not your first game, it's a game you graduate to when you're ready move on or when you've outgrown D&D 5e. Like GURPS, it requires creativity. ICRPG also asks you to give up your shiny things. There's less player tools and less safety nets. ICRPG asks you bring your heart, wits, and guts. Tourists are less likely to find it and more likely to bounce off.

Tourists aren't bad, but they need the most onboarding and the most initiation into the hobby culture. They bring their own influences from other hobbies or interests and expect them to mesh. It often clashes instead. No one knows what to expect, and they anticipate too much. No one is prepared for what happens when you mix different friend groups together and find out what they're like when they get a to embody a powerful, evil character and have a beer. That's the kind of situation that 5e creates. These could be people who have only played Dark Souls and seen Marvel movies, or they could be people who love watching Critical Role for the jokes, characters, and story, but who don't really care about the game itself. No one is on the same page. It leads to disappointment.

If you're reading this and you don't think that's a problem, either you're really good at this or you have some really good friends. Or maybe you're really easy going. For others, this is hard to manage.

Managing Expectations

D&D 5e is kitchen-sink fantasy. It's very broad and very generic. Because of this, expectations are a son of a gun to manage. Because D&D can be so many different kinds of games and fantasies, you never really know what you're going to get. Imagine I ask you out to a movie and you ask "what's playing?" I list the movies and ask you, "what are you in the mood for?" We narrow the choices down to one specific, coherent experience based on our tastes and mood. A D&D 5e group is like five people who can't decide on which movie to watch, so they overlap five projectors playing different movies onto one screen. 

I've come up with some interesting metaphors to describe D&D 5e before, but I'm really proud of that one.

D&D needs to be something specific. It really does. Why? Because you're not interested everything. You have specific tastes. One of my biggest complaints with 5e is that managing expectations is a massive problem. It's a massively understated problem. Unfulfilled expectations are massively disappointing. I will write ten more essays on this subject specifically before I die. Watch.

No one wants to wake up one morning and realize they've committed to a game and a group they have nothing in common with.

The Likely Cause of a (Supposed) DM Shortage?

It's DM burnout. DM's report exhaustion, prep burden, rules or systems burden, conflicts of expectations, conflicts with personalities, lack of authority, lack of tools, or lack of system clarity.

One of the problems is the asymmetry inherent to the game; one person does all the work, the other four do none.

Every player should take a turn being a DM and they should run their own campaign. This teaches them appreciation of the role. It will enrich them and by extension everyone. Here's a hot take: if you've never run your own campaign, the feedback that you can provide to your DM or fellow players will never be as valued as someone who has. Note that I didn't say valuable, I said valued. If you haven't done it yourself, you don't actually know what it's like and so your opinion hasn't been informed by experience.

DMing is a rite of passage. Every player should be expected to take a turn and DM. No exceptions. Players are consumers. GMs are producers. Being a producer makes you a better consumer. As a thought experiment, I want you to imagine two gaming groups. Both groups are seasoned plat TTRPGs. In group one, you have one forever DM and players who have never DMed. In group two, everyone has DMed a campaign. Which group do you want to be a part of? You would rather be in group two because everyone has been a leader, teacher, and a creator. This means some maturation.

Yes, I am suggesting is that players who haven't crossed the DMing threshold are contributing to DM burnout. For anyone keeping score, this is not WotC's fault.

Here's What This All Means

D&D 5e is not for beginner DMs and that's why there could be a shortage. D&D 5e is a mess. It's one hundred games in one. Every game has a hundred variations. There are too many different kinds of players with different tastes, and D&D 5e is trying to appeal to all of them at once. Finding the iteration of D&D 5e that works for you takes trial and error. Now imagine one core rule book set that tries to make that work for groups of five, hundreds and hundreds of times. Now combine that with the task of learning leadership / managerial skills you might not have, and the struggles of having your creative labor scrutinized by people who might not appreciate it on a weekly basis.

Your mission double-oh Joe, average Joe, regular Joe, is to make it work.

Good expletive luck!

Actual Data?!

We have data that shows that the average D&D campaign lasts 6 sessions:

https://www.myarchivist.ai/ai-dungeon-master/how-long-do-dnd-campaigns-last.
What can we infer from this data? I think that the most generous interpretation is that TTRPGs are hard. If you get into D&D or any TTRPG, temper your expectations.

Here's Why This Matters

If there is a DM shortage, it's important to confirm it and then it's important to identify the causes. Naming the monster is how the first step to slaying it. We want more DMs. We want this hobby to grow. DMs grow the hobby, not players. We need to take care of the DMs.

Here's What Should Change

If I were in charge of WotC, here's what I would do. I would release D&D 5e Basic. Once upon a time, there was Advanced Dungeons and Dragons which was crunchy and full of tables and all kinds of crap. Then there was the Dungeons and Dragons Basic. I'm bringing it back because less is more.

D&D Basic was the essence of D&D. It was the good stuff without all the mess, the bloat, and the complications.

D&D 5e Basic would not be a starter set. It would be its own product line. It would be fully supported, and published side-by-side with D&D 5e. D&D 5e will have fewer and simpler classes, fewer and simpler fantasy races, fewer spells, fewer magic items, fewer, simpler rules. I'm cutting the crap and I'm giving you D&D 5e, but I'm curating it. I'm giving you to the essence of it. It's going to have a narrower tone and genre. It's going to have a narrower scope. It's going to have a setting that's grounded, so you understand what works and what doesn't. I'm restricting alignment to enforce group cohesion. Combat is going to be simpler and faster. Exploration is going to be clear. Social Interaction is going to clear. It's going to logically led to only a few styles of play.

When you look at D&D 5e, you're going to be filled with a sense of wonder, but you're going to know what kind of game this is and you're going to know what kind of game it isn't. And so will the players.

It's going to easy to learn, to run, and to play. It's going to be fun to prep and run.

Conclusion

I want to reiterate my introduction. The DM shortage is anecdotal. We need more data. I think GMing for 5e is a son of a gun, and WotC continues to support players, but not GMs. All of these things contribute to GMing for 5e feeling like hard work rather than a fun, creative pursuit. GMing 5e was the most frustrating and least fulfilling experience in TTRPGs I've had. Make no mistake, the frustration comes from 5e in particular. Other games were smoother.

For more commentary on Managing Expectations, see these posts here:

Managing Expectations in TTRPGs - GM Expectations Framework

Managing Expectations in TTRPGs - Discussing What We Do and Don't Like

Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Optional Rules

Optional Rules

There are the rules and procedures that people like and use frequently, and then there are the rules and procedures people tend to overlook or neglect. To ease your conscience, I have put those rules in the Optional Rules section. Everything here is indented to be useful and compatible with the tone and playstyle of Bright-Dark.

POINT CRAWL

Imagine arranging the world into a flow chart or a diagram. Locations are points, and the routes between them are lines. Some points are key destinations. Some points are intermittent points representing an obstacle, minor location, rest stop, or a decision point. Pick a line and follow it to the next point. Every time you move from one point to another point is counted as one turn. That's a point crawl. It's simple because it's abstract. The choices presented typically represent the important paths in the world with the unimportant spaces between them being omitted. There's no wandering in circles, finding nothing or getting lost. The GM describes your location, and the players choose a path.

Point Crawls are a middle point between abstraction and simulation. They simplify a complex location; allowing structure and organization without unnecessary precision. Players movement can easily be tracked. The points are treated like a stage for a scene where meaningful information is emphasized rather than a literal location that must be treated realistically. This is why they suit Bright-Dark.

When to Use Point-Crawl, When Not to

You may use point crawls when exploration, discovery and or consequences are emphasized, and when time is a stake. Otherwise, in towns for instance, it's perfectly good to just keep the points as a list, reveal these to the players, and ask where they go.

Turn: When you move from one point to another point, that is one turn. A turn costs player characters in-world time, and the amount depends on the scale of the location. Note that we don't typically linger on the lines. Lines usually represent the stuff in between scenes.

Scale

The scale of the point crawl map depends on the location that the point crawl represents. There are three scales. Dungeon scale is small scale (typically, but hypothetically there can be mega dungeons). Settlement scale is medium scale. Wilderness scale is large scale and can describe a county, kingdom, continent, or even the world.

Dungeon: If the map describes a dungeon, then points are rooms and the paths represent connecting hallways. Moving to a new point and any careful activity in a dungeon (searching, picking locks) is typically a turn and is tracked in 10-minute chunks. Short, simple halls can be traversed in a negligible amount of time, but some halls can be as complex or dangerous as dungeon rooms.

Settlement: If the map describes a village, town, or city, the points are shops, landmarks, major establishments, places of importance, and the lines represent streets. Travel time may be 10-minute chunks to 1-hour chunks depending on the size of the city.

Wilderness: If the map describes a kingdom, county, or other large region of the world, then points might be settlements, dungeons, or major landmarks, and the lines between them are roads and trails. Travel time between points of a region take a number of hours or whole days.

Wandering Encounters

NPCs occupy these locations. NPCs don't just sit around and wait for the player characters, they wander. When the player characters encounter the wandering NPCs, this is called a wandering encounter. In a point crawl, it can happen on a point or a line. Wandering encounters are important because they add unpredictability (even danger) which can make the location feel like a real, believable place.

Rates of wandering encounters are based on scale (dungeon, settlement, or wilderness). The GM may roll for wandering encounters every other turn in a dungeon. Daytime or nighttime may also affect the kinds and the frequency of encounters. In the wilderness, the GM may roll twice each turn, where one roll represents day and the other is night.

Rolls are made by the GM. There is a one in six (1d6) chance of an encounter. On a 1, an NPC (or NPC group) appears nearby. The NPC may appear at the point the PCs are moving to, or they may appear on an adjacent line and traveling towards that point. This creates variability in circumstances. One side may appear first or detect the other side in advanced, allowing one side a choice to avoid the encounter. Quietly assign each path one to two numbers on a 1d6. The point gets the remaining numbers. Then roll to determine where the wandering encounter appears.

GM Tips: Wandering encounters add challenge but that's not all. When done well, wandering encounters benefit immersion and verisimilitude. When done poorly, they slow down the game or make the game get stuck. You may handwave wandering encounters for the sake of pacing and immersion, not to go easy on the players.

Rare magic items have 1 tag. Very rare magic items have 2 tags. Cursed items have one cursed tag and one beneficial tag. Relics have 3 to 4 tags.

MAGIC ITEMS

+1 bonuses in Bright-Dark are massive; therefore, magic items in Bright-Dark rarely have numerical bonuses. Instead, magic items have tags that define abilities. The GM can add one tag to an item. Create your own magic items using these tags below or create your own tags. Magic items should change the story, not math. Keep them rare, personal, and meaningful.

Rare magic items have 1 tag. Very rare magic items have 2 tags. Cursed items have one cursed tag and one beneficial tag. Relics have 3 to 4 tags.

Utility Tags
Lights on Command	This item lights up like a torch on command
Water Walking	The wearer can walk and stop on the surface of water
Floats	The wearer ignores hazardous terrain and moves Fast
Storm Conjuring	This item conjures a powerful wind once
Indestructible	This item cannot break and does not wear
Telepathy	Communicate telepathically with one person
Shapeshifting	The item shapeshifts to fit the wearer or suit the wielder's needs
Animated	The object animates on command and can be controlled remotely
Telekinesis	Limited telekinesis within Near range; costs 1 Stamina to lift heavier-than-handheld objects

Combat Tags
Magic Weapon	Damages enemies resistant to mundane harm
Bane	Deals 1d6 bonus damage to a specific creature type
Flames on Command	Ignites like a torch and deals magical fire damage instead of mundane damage
Life Shield	If reduced to 0 HP, wearer stays at 1 HP (1× per scene)
Keen	Critical hits on a natural 16–18

Protection Tags
Elemental Protection	Protected from fire and cold
Spirit Ward	Protects wearer against possession
Charm Protection	Protects wearer against charm
Regeneration	Regenerates +1 Health per day
Magic Shield	Half damage from magic attacks
Repelling	Temporarily repels a specific enemy type on command

Mystic Tags
Conjuring	Conjures a single, specific creature (genie, guardian spirit, a nearby plant or beast, etc.)
Curse of Compulsion	Item cannot be removed; compels the wearer to...
Curse of Weakness	Item cannot be removed; sets Strength to -3
Of Seeing	Grants visions; sometimes when wanted, usually when needed
Sapient	Item can reason and telepathically communicate
Sentient	Item can feel and empathically communicate
Compass	Points toward a specific object or category of objects

OPTIONAL MAGIC RULES

For optional magic rules such as signature spells, wild magic, and optional magic talents, please see the Magic Section.

SURVIVAL MECHANICS

Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game intentionally avoids survival mechanics, but if survival mechanics suits your style, use the following rules:

Food & Water

Quantities of food and water are abstract. Any amount of food or water counts as enough for one day.

Dehydration

• 1 day without water means you're dehydrated
• Dehydration kills in 3 days
• Dehydrated characters suffer:
• -1 situational penalty
• NPCs gain a +1 situational bonus against them

Starvation

• 3 days without food means you're starving
• Starvation kills is 7 days (one full week)
• Starving characters suffer:
• -1 situational penalty
• NPCs gain a +1 situational bonus against them

These penalties exist within the faction. 

Shelter & Exposure

Shelter protects against environmental hazards such as heat, cold, wind, and rain.

Shelter may be:

• A sleeping bag
• A warm blanket
• A tent
• A building
• Any fictionally appropriate cover

Cold

• Mild cold impairs sleep and leads to exhaustion (within the fiction)
• Freezing cold can kill in one night
• Characters without adequate shelter suffer narrative consequences (shivering, numbness, slowed movement)

Heat

• Extreme heat doubles water requirements
• Extreme heat reduces dehydration time (death in 2 days)
• Characters may suffer heat exhaustion, disorientation, or collapse in fiction

Illness & Infection

Illness may arise from:

• Insect bite
• Poisonous plants
• Spoiled food
• Contaminated water
• Untreated wounds

Timeline

• Incubation: 1 day or night
• Onset: 1–3 days of illness (the duration depends on the illness)

Recovery

If the illness is severe (depending on the illness):

• Roll Endurance to recover. The Difficulty TN depends on the illness.
• On failure, repeat the illness duration
• After each repeated duration, either:
• Recover automatically, or
• Roll Endurance again to repeat the duration

Medical Intervention

A trained expert:

• Ends the illness duration
• Allows automatic recovery to begin

This keeps illness narrative-driven while giving players meaningful decisions. If you use Survival Mechanics, consider adding this optional Talent:

Optional Talent: Healer

You are a trained Healer or Doctor. You can diagnose illnesses, identify natural remedies, and prepare simple medicines. When treating an illness, you may end its duration immediately, allowing recovery to begin without requiring an Endurance roll.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT & ENCUMBRANCE

if you want inventory management, here's a simple system. With this system, characters are assumed to have a backpack or similar carrying container.

Carrying Capacity

Characters can carry a load of 10 + Strength items. At character Improvement, they can choose to improve their carrying capacity by +1 items up to a cap of 20 + Strength items. If characters are carrying their full load, they are encumbered. Encumbrance is condition within the fiction and penalties are situational. Exceeding this load can be done within reason, but the character moves at Slow speed (15 ft / turn).

Weight and Size. Items that are heavy or bulky can be carried within reason. Use your judgment and ask what a real person could believably carry. For example, two suits of heavy armor or ten 10 ft pole-arms sounds unreasonable.

Bulk Quantities. Multiple quantities of small light items are counted as one item. For simplicity, use multiples of 5. 5 Torches. 5 days rations (if used). Rope 50 ft = 1 item. An ammo container holds 20 pieces of ammunition. Coins or gems (if used) up to 500. Don't track individual tools if a tool kit can be tracked instead. Example: a sewing kit or doctor's bag.

Petty items. Items of insignificant size and weight like keys, flint and steel, a personal token like a signet ring, or a holy symbol, can be handwaved unless carried in bulk quantities.

Optional Talent: Strong Back. You can carry 15 + Strength items rather than 10 + Strength items.

HEALTH ALTERNATIVE: INJURY SYSTEM

Instead of rolling for damage and tracking health, we instead track physical wounds or injuries. These are abstract and exist within the fiction as flavor, not numeric or mechanical.

• Any hit is counted as one injury.
• A critical hit causes a severe injury which is counted as two injuries for gameplay purposes.
• At three injuries, a character is unconscious.
• Characters recover from injuries at a rate of one injury every three days.

With this alternative system, characters take one injury if they fall 20 feet, two injuries at 30 feet, and 3 injuries at 40 feet. If they fall 50 feet or greater, they perish.

ALTERNATIVE COMBAT

Bright-Dark's built-in combat rules are intended for fast, simple combat that focuses on the narrative and deemphasizes tactics and strategy. If you prefer a more traditional TTRPG combat system, use this instead.

Surprise

Characters who are distracted, asleep, unconscious, or otherwise unaware of a hostile adversary or unable to react timely within the fiction are surprised.

Surprised characters lose their first turn.

Turn Order

The GM rolls 1d6 to determine which side acts first. 

• 1-3: The NPCs act first. 
• 4-6: The Players act first

Players take their turns clockwise around the table.

Turns

On player turns, players may: 

• Make one action, and 
• Move up to their normal movement as part of their action. 

Attacking ends your turn!

The player declares their action, the GM resolves the action, and then the next player takes their turn.

This alternative combat system is more familiar to TTRPGs and may be easier for them to learn and play.

STRUCTURED MAGIC

If Bright-Dark 3d6's freeform magic system is too unstructured for you, consider using this list of words that describe the shape or form of the spell. This describes who it can affect, and how. Consider that any ranged spells should require the caster to be able to see the space or the target that they are trying to hit with their spell (which is often called line of sight in games). Anything that affects an area (multiple characters or objects) is a major spell.

Touch  

Magic delivered through physical contact.

Examples: healing warmth, burning grip, conductive energy.

Bolt  

A narrow, focused projection of magical force.

Examples: a streak of fire, a lance of light, a crackling spark.

Blast, Cone, or Line

A sudden, explosive burst of magic. It affects an area with a diameter of one pencil.

Examples: a fireburst, a shockwave, a concussive flare, a cone-shaped breath

Aura  

A field of magic that surrounds the caster or a target with a diameter of a pencil.

Examples: a glow of protection, a haze of heat, a shimmering veil.

Mark  

Magic that leaves a lingering effect or symbol.

Examples: a sigil, a brand, a glowing rune.

Field

Magic that effects a specific area and persists for a short duration. Diameter: 1 pencil length.

Examples: a concealing fog, a hazardous outcrop of rocks or plant growth, an illusion, 

Remote

Magic that crosses space without affecting anything in between.

Examples: Telepathy, a charming gaze

Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles - Character Writing Shorthand

This isn't an unc-slop post. This is a post about managing multiple characters in creative writing.

Everyone should watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT). Which comic, movie or TV series should you watch first? At this point, there's so many, and I'm not a super fan. My favorites are the 2003 animated series and the first two live-action movies.

When I was kid, everyone knew about TMNT. Everyone loved TMNT. And there was an interesting question you could ask anyone and learn a lot about them.

"Who is your favorite turtle?"

Your answer revealed something about you whether you realize it or not. 9 times out of 10, your favorite turtle tells people what your personality is.

So, in case you are unfamiliar with TMNT because you're under twenty-five, there are four turtles. They each have one dominant personality type.

Leonardo = Responsible

Michelangelo = Carefree

Donatello = Intellectual

Raphael = Emotional

The first thing you'll notice is that each personality is distinct. With TMNT in particular, the personality types are exaggerated so that you immediately associate the character with the trait. This helps audiences recognize and remember the characters, and if you recall what I said earlier about people having favorites, it helps audiences immediately identify one character they like.

If you look at these personality types, you'll notice that each personality type has one opposite. Responsible and carefree are opposites. Intellectual and emotional are opposites.

This is where character dynamics come in. By pairing the opposing personality types in a scene together, they contrast each other and exaggerate their characteristics. This can also lead to conflict.

The other personality types can make complementary combinations. See, these personality types I've listed are their dominant personality trait, but not the character's only trait. They have some range. For example, the responsible character has capacity for intellectuality and emotionality, but it takes pairing one of the complementary personality types with them to bring it out. If you put the Leonardo in a scene with Raphael, you can Leonardo get heated and frustrated. If you pair Leonardo in a scene with Donatello, you can see Leonardo's appreciation technology and intelligence gathering. 

Pair any two characters to reveal interesting dynamics.

Michaelangel (carefree) brings out Donatello's (intellectual) fun side. Michaelangelo also encourages Raphael (emotional) to be a little wild.

So, any time you're managing multiple characters in a scene, it helps to simplify them to their dominant personality trait and ask yourself, "how do these personality traits mix?"

Don't limit yourself to these personality types I've describe above. Make your own if it suits you. Maybe lawful, neutral, and chaotic. Maybe final happy, angry, and sad. Maybe brave, wise, kind, and cunning. The key words that make sense to you will probably suit you very well.

I recall some classical Greek idea about four humors explaining four personalities. If you're curious about the four humors, look up something called the Four-Temperament Ensemble.

Christianity has a concept of seven sins and seven virtues. Those are some really good words to think about. Each sin describes an aspect about the human condition, and each virtue describes a discipline one needs to manage it.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wants to go home. Her other companions? Brains, courage, and heart. There's an interesting combination in there somewhere.

In a story I'm writing right now, I am juggling seven characters. Three of them have been pushed to the background, but they could be described as heart, courage, and brains. Of the other four, one is responsible, one is carefree, one is emotional. The last one is a wildcard; to be determined. It's probably pride. Using these key words helps to reduce the cognitive load of seven characters while still keeping their presence distinct and their interactions meaningful.

If you want to know how to make a likable character, which is also important, I wrote a review about an anime where I break down what makes a likeable character here: Anime Recommendation: Kimi Ni Todoke.

Game Design Sins - Character-Skill over Player-Skill

Skill Challenges - A Rant

D&D 4e had this concept called the Skill Challenge. What's a Skill Challenge? OK, so imagine you are playing D&D. You and your fellow players are fleeing from a monster. You're probably thinking "chase scenes are tricky. How is the GM going to handle this?" Then, your GM speaks. *Imitates Kermit the Frog voice* "OK guys. We're doing a Skill Challenge."

He explains that you have to look at the skill list on your character sheet and you have to choose a skill, any skill, and think of a way to use it in the context that's being presented to you.

Player, looking and sounding confident: "OK cool. I use stealth to hide."

GM: "Roll."

Player: "I got a natural 30 or whatever. Yay! We did it!"

Then the GM describes how you use your stealth skill to hide successfully, then says "but you still have to pass two more skill rolls."

Player, looking and sounding confused: "Eh, what? But I passed the skill roll. You narrated that we hid. I don't understand."

GM: "It's called a Skill Challenge, that means you have to get X successes, and you have to avoid getting X failures."

Player: *Makes angry face*. "What?"

So, the first problem is that it's arbitrary. It's a mini game / sub-system with arbitrary point scoring in D&D! How bizarre, right? Here comes the second problem.

Player: "OK, so I just do stealth again."

GM: "Nope. You can only use one skill per skill challenge."

Player: "What! Why?! That makes no sense!"

GM: *Sticks finger in belly button and sniffs it*. "You pleb. You don't understand anything."

Other Player: "OK, I roll stealth then."

GM: "No, sorry, let me clarify: a skill can only be used once per skill challenge."

Other Player: *Makes angry face*. "What sense does that make? What else do we do to run away in a chase scene?"

That's the second problem. Arbitrary limitations. I'm sure there's a design reason for why skills can't be repeated, but I think it conflicts with the logic of a narrative. Why wouldn't I just hide, then run and hide again? Like, I don't know what the skill challenge is trying to describe within the logic of the fiction. You can't hide twice? Have you ever played hide and go seek before? I'm genuinely confused and frustrated.

Player: "OK, so what do we do?"

GM: "Try History."

Player: *Cocks pistol*. "What! How do I use history to escape during a chase!"

GM: "That's for you to come up with. You're the adventurer."

Player thinks: "I use history to remember if there are better hiding places. Then we hide there."

GM: *Shrugs*. "OK, roll."

And so that's the third part about this system that doesn't make any sense to me. You have to make very creative applications of game mechanics. Some of these you probably have to stretch. And uh, I can imagine that if you did your nineteenth skill challenge, all these stretched interpretations of skills would be familiar, and you wouldn't really struggle to work them out. You've justified nonsense enough already that you could just do it again. You would just describe how you use a skill, roll, and count points. It's very, very contrived.

I've never seen the designers who designed this mode of play comment about it. I think they were sitting around one day thinking up a reason to make skills be used more. This is it. This is what they came up with, and it makes me think that maybe skills aren't important anyway.

It turns a narrative scene into a series of pass/fail die rolls. It forces player creativity through a hoop or a strainer instead of letting players work out a solution naturally, which would be describing a plan and then the GM adjudicates. Therefore, this is a contrived mode of play. You've taken the very simple game-play loop and you've turned it into this weird thing.

Finally, that number of successes vs failures is arbitrary. Harder skill challenges mean you have to succeed 9 times and avoid 3 failures. Ugh. That means the possibly of 11 of these at once?

So, in summary: it's character-skill over player-skill, it's contrived, and it's arbitrary. It takes away the normal gameplay loop and imposes this new thing that's very not D&D.

I want the GM to present a problem. Then I want to come up with my solution. I don't want to be forced to come up with an arbitrary number of solutions and then outsource the results to the dice. Rolling the dice means there's a chance to fail. Rolling dice and failing isn't fun. I think if I come up with a good plan that works within the logic of the setting and the fiction, the consequences should be based on the merit of the plan, or whether or not it's just a functional solution.

I could sit here and roll a die ten times, adding a bonus from a random skill ten times, and ask a table to justify each use of the skill for me. I could do that in like 2 minutes. You've taken a game about creativity and roleplaying, and you've gamified it into a random outcome generator that gets loosely justified proactively. That's weird guys. It's not playing. That is not play. That isn't play.

It sucks and I forbid it.

For something opposite of a skill challenge, I wrote a soft-skills system supplement for Open 2d6. It's more player-skill over character-skill.

Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - QuickStart

What This Game is

Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game (Bright-Dark) is a table-top fantasy role-playing game about creating a specific feel. It is:

• Rules-Lite
• Fiction-First
• Player-Skill-Forward
• Human-Scale Stakes
• Grounded Fantasy
• Low Magic
• Low Fantasy
• Simple, Fast, Intuitive
• Assumes realism as a basis for how the world works
• Class-less
• Skill-less
• Tone-Driven
• Combat is deadly, not a sport

Bright-Dark Tone

Bright-Dark is not bright against dark, it's bright within dark. Light does not triumph, but darkness does not fade.

The world is wounded. The is not a literal wound, it's a metaphor for a central tension that affects everyone, everywhere. It characterizes the world and the people in it.

People carry a quiet grief. Wonders are fading, but they remind us that there are things worth struggling for. Kindness, courage, and hope are important because they're needed. It's melancholy but warm, and without nihilism.

Heroes are ordinary people with small but meaningful goals. They face danger because they care. They want to help one significant person, one forgotten village, or one lonely shrine.

The Core Mechanic (3d6)

This game uses a 3d6 roll-over mechanic. You roll three six-sided dice (3d6), add a bonus or penalty from an attribute, and a bonus from one appropriate Talent. Try to roll equal to or greater than a Difficulty Target Number (TN).

Rolls of 3-4, before bonuses and penalties are added, are automatic failures. The GM may add a narratively appropriate consequence to the outcomes of these actions. Magic backfires. Complications arise.

Rolls of a 17-18, before bonuses and penalties, are critical success! The GM may add a narratively appropriate consequence to the outcomes of these actions. Attacks add a bonus 2d6 damage. The action goes just right! 

The 3d6 produces results that, when graphed, create a bell-curve distribution. About 67% of all rolls fall between 8 and 13. This means that the middle results are common, and the highs and lows are uncommon and rare. Dice rolls feel less swingy. Your characters will more reliably succeed at what they specialize in which encourages niche protection and teamwork.

Light Bonus & Dark Penalty

This game uses a variation on the 3d6 mechanic that reinforces tone. The GM applies these when they are emotionally meaningful in a scene.

Light Bonus

When acting with hope in a bleak situation, when protecting someone at personal risk, or when facing great fear with others would ordinarily run, players gain a Light Bonus. They roll 4d6 and drop the lowest.

Dark Penalty

When giving into temptation and taking the easy path, when abandoning others to protect yourself, or when giving into despair, players gain a Dark Penalty. They roll 4d6 and drop the highest.

Character Creation

Players must make characters who suit the tone and setting. A pdf of the character sheet is available here.

Wounds

Start by creating a wound. A wound is an internal conflict caused by a past trauma, a mistake, a fear, a lie, a burden, or a betrayal. This wound is an internal conflict or struggle, and it should inform how you play your character.

Goals

Your characters need a personal goal to pursue in play. What do they want and why is it important to them? What happens if they fail? These are what motivate your character.

Discuss your wound and goal with your GM before play.

Attributes & Modifiers

There are six attributes:

• Strength: Melee, physical exertion
• Endurance: Physical resilience
• Agility: Ranged, physical coordination
• Mind: Knowledge, Tools, Gadgets, Crafts
• Will: Resistance to external influence and control
• Emotion: Expression and passion

Next, assign each of these modifiers to your attributes as desired:

+2, +1, 0, 0, -1, -2

Talents

Talents distinguish your character. Some talents add small bonuses, some grant use of skills or powers. At character creation, choose one talent. A short list of talent is provided in these QuickStart rules.

• Attractive Presence: When you trigger a reaction roll, roll 4d6 and keep the highest three instead of 3d6. Something about your presence draws attention or eases tension. It might be beauty, confidence, authority, or an inner quality that others respond to.
• Brute: Add +1d6 to melee weapon damage, but subtract 1 from your Defense. You hit harder than most, but your aggressive style leaves you more exposed.
• Diehard: Add +1 to resist fatigue, disease, poison, harsh conditions, long exertion, or heavy physical strain.
• Marksman: You do not suffer penalties to hit due to range, and you do not suffer penalties to called shots while in Near range. 
• Magic-User: You can use magic. Refer to the Magic section for rules and additional magic talents for magic-users to choose as part of character improvement.
• Signature Weapon: Choose a weapon type (staff, mace, hammer, sword, great sword, dagger, longbow, etc.). When you use this weapon, you gain a +1 to hit and damage rolls.
• Thievery: add +1 to rolls to sneak, hide, pick locks, palm, lift or plant objects without notice, and perform delicate tasks with your hands.

Resources

Your character has three resources: Health, Stamina, and Ether.

Health

Health describes your body's capacity to sustain wounds and injuries. Any lost health abstractly represents a wound or injury. Characters begin maximum health equal to 10 + Strength.

Stamina

Stamina describes your ability to exert yourself. Spend 1 Stamina to roll 4d6 and drop the lowest on an action. Characters begin with Stamina equal to their Endurance, minimum 1.

Ether

Ether is the substance that magic and spirits are made of. Spend 1 Ether to cast Minor Spells, or 2 Ether to cast Major Spells. Characters begin with Ether equal to either their Mind, Will, or Emotion (their choice), minimum 1.

Bonus Resource Points

Once your resources are determined, you have three bonus resources points you may add to your resources as desired to finalize your resources. For example, if your Health is 12 (10 + 2 from Strength), you may add all three of your resource points to raise it to 15.

Equipment

Equipment exists within the fiction, not the character sheet. Encumbrance is not tracked. Your characters can begin with anything they need that suits their character (but not everything they want).

Armor and Defense TN

Your Defense TN does not describe the character's skill; it describes how exposed they are. Armor provides protection.

• Unarmored = 8 Defense TN
• Light Armor (cloth or leather) = 9 
• Medium Armor (banded, scale or chain) = 10
• Shield (Wooden) = +1 to Defense TN

Weapons

All weapons deal 1d6 + attribute damage as a base. Some Talents may apply. For variety:

• Barehanded strikes deal 1 + Strength
• Improvised weapons deal 1d3 + Strength
• Small, light weapons deal 1d6-1 (minimum 1) + Attribute
• Average weapons deal 1d6 + Attribute
• Large, heavy weapons deal 1d6+1 + Attribute

How to Play

The medium of the game is conversation, not mechanics, procedures, or rules. The gameplay loop looks like this:

• First, the GM describes the scene.
• Second, the players describe what they do and how.
• Third, the GM determines and describes what happens.
• Repeat until the scene is resolved, then establish a new scene.

This is how combat, exploration, and social interaction work.

Social interaction

Dice are not used. Social interaction is resolved with conversation, roleplay, and descriptions only. Think of it as exploration of a character (the NPC). Players goals are:

• Find out what the NPC needs
• Offer the NPC something in exchange for something the players need
• Hear out the NPCs objections, if any, and adjust there offer

Combat (Basic Rules)

Side-Based Turn Order

Each side gets a turn in combat:

• The GM side
• The Player side

Transitioning into and out of combat should feel seamless; Turn order is determined by the fiction, not die rolls.

Player Turns are handled in two phases: first a declaration phase, then a resolution phase.

• Declaration Phase: All players declare their action. Players can make one action, and they can move up to their normal move (a pencil length) as part of their action.
• Resolution Phase: All players roll their dice, then the GM determines what happens.

GM Guidance

Think of yourself as a narrator of a story in which the players are the characters. It's the kind of story where the narrator can talk to the characters but does not give anything away. Describe the world around them freely and honestly, including danger, and give them opportunities to make choices. Let consequences follow naturally.

The GM takes on the role of the setting and the characters who live there. The GM prepares a situation, not an outcome. There is no right solution, only the player's solution. Let them surprise you and react to their choices with improv.

Simulation vs Adjudication

Dice in Bright-Dark are a tool for simulation, not adjudication. Roll when the fiction presents an uncertain physical outcome that cannot be resolved through description and rulings alone. Combat, climbing a cliff, leaping a gap, forcing a door, enduring a storm.

Adjudication is different. When the outcome can be reasonably judged through common sense, lived experience, or narrative logic, the GM rules on what happens. Social interaction, exploration, and problem-solving fall into this category.

Realism is the basis for adjudication and assigning Difficulty TNs. If a real person with a proficiency would reasonably succeed at something in real life, then the character succeeds in the game. TNs describe difficulty in a world based on realism, not to create artificial challenge or game balance.

Difficulty should be based on fiction grounded in realism. What is not intended is assigning TNs for the sake of the risk tuning or to make the game feel more challenging or fair.

Sample Scenario

I have three scenes for you. Together they describe a short story that your characters can play through. They are the characters and they make the decisions.

Scene 1. Village of Fairbaren

An Evrwyr traveler is panicked and angry at the villagers and is making a scene. 

Players need to reveal the conflict.  

• Intervention: They can interrupt the Evrwyr traveler before he says something he can't take back, earn his trust, and learn what the conflict is.
• Observe: They can observe and do nothing as the Evrwyr yells furiously and incoherently at the villagers until the sheriff will eventually arrest the man and put him in the pillory. He may be open to talking to the players if they're kind.
• Investigate: After the scene, the players can ask anyone who may direct the players to the young boys of the village, or their parents.

Revelation: The conflict is that the Evrwyr travels with his daughter Nelly and his dog Odo. The boys in town have dared the daughter to test her bravery by going inside the abandoned watchtower outside of the village. They showed her the way and left her there. The Evrwyr traveler is furious at the villagers who don't offer him any help and little remorse because he's an outsider.

Bonus: Curious players can inquire about the history of the abandoned watchtower. Only then do the villagers explain that the abandoned watchtower is home to a cursed guardian who defends it against any mortals. This is why the tower is still abandoned.

Scene 2. The Wolf Woods

The watch tower is built on top of a hill that stands out of a forest. The players can take the winding road which is the longer but safer path, or they can take the dangerous, shortcut through the dark, dangerous forest and up the steep rear side of the hill.

• The road: Players who take the road will arrive at the old fortress with a one-hour delay, but they will be safe. The one-hour delay means that Nelly's dog Odo will become impatient and alert danger to Nelly.
• The forest: Players have a chance to encounter something dangerous. Roll 1d6:
• 1 = A pack of hungry wolves.
• 2 = a group of brigands who want to collect a toll, possibly by force.
• 3 = a hypervigilant troll who mistakes the party for monster hunters.
• 4-6 nothing.

Scene 3. The Abandoned Watch Tower

Players who arrive at the back will be find that there is no rear entrance and will have to walk around to the open front gate (unless they want to climb). The gate is broken it. Anyone can walk inside.

The Evrwyr girl, Nelly, fulfilled her dare and went into the watch tower. She's trapped on the top floor with her loyal, protective pet dog, Odo. She's too afraid of Garrison to come out of hiding or call or help.

What the GM Knows: Fifty years ago, there was a surprise attack on the watch tower. One of the defenders betrayed the others and let opened the doors for their attackers in exchange for his life. One known only as Garrison was desperate to repel the invaders and defend the village - his home. He watched it burn in the distance from the top of the watchtower. He gave his life, but he didn't perish. His undead form still guards the watchtower, mistaking anything as an invader and attacking.

Garrison has a 1 in 1d6 chance of appearing on any floor of the tower. There are three levels and a basement.

Garrison

An undead swordsman concealed by armor and a helmet.

Health: 15

Attributes: +1, -1

Damage: 1d6+1 (longsword)

Defense TN: 11

Morale TN: 7 (very brave)

Wound: He failed the village.

Shield: He won't fail again.

Goal: Protect the village.

Obstacle: In his undead state, is unaware that the village survived.

Redeeming Traits: Honorable, brave

Note to GM: Garrison is a complex NPC. In Bright-Dark, complex NPCs have a wound, a shield, a goal, and obstacle, and redeeming traits. These help you to portray the NPC, and it can help the players diffuse the situation.

The Wound of The Abandoned Watchtower

Searching the barracks reveals that one man called Tanner kept a journal in which he detailed his betrayal. He was desperate to survive and deeply conflicted about his decision. He is responsible for food poisoning which caused the men to be unable to defend the watchtower. This can always be read out loud to Garrison. Upon completion, he will stop swinging his sword at the players, appreciating them as allies for this revelation.

Possible Resolutions

Ultimately, escaping with Nelly will end the scenario.

• Garrison's undead body takes only 1 point of damage from mundane weapons. If magic is used, make a morale check with a Morale TN of 10. He returns with a crossbow and fights from range. Magic damage can destroy him.
• Players notice Garrion's movement is slow, and so he can be kited around. If they're careful, some of the players can distract Garion's while the others search for Nelly.
• If the players took the long, safe route, the one-hour delay has cause Nelly's dog Odo to give them away. Odo is prepared to defend Nelly to the death, but Nelly is not prepared to abandon her beloved pet.
• Garrison doesn't speak and ignores attempts at persuasion or intimidation, believing it to be deception. However, if the players can convince him that the village survived, or appeal to one of his other complex NPC traits in a way that makes sense within the fiction, the conflict may soften.
• Discover Tanner's journal and read it aloud to Garrison.

Main: Table of Contents - (Full game single post)

Download: Full Rulebook PDF version 0.9

Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Designer Notes

This section explains the philosophy behind Bright‑Dark: why the mechanics are simple, why the tone matters, and how the game evolved. It’s a behind‑the‑scenes look at the design process. I plan on expanding designer notes over time.

DESIGNER NOTES

How to Interpret Rules

The rules are intended to reinforce tone. They are written to describe what they allow. They are not written to list and describe everything that's not allowed. If the rules don’t mention something, it simply isn’t part of the game. They don't imply that anything that is not mentioned is allowed. Avoid loopholes like "well the rules don't say I can't do that." This keeps Bright‑Dark focused, clear, and easy to run.

Meet This Game Half-Way

Managing expectations in TTRPGs is the biggest obstacle. Some games try to set a tone by creating a specific setting. This can help manage expectations, but the downside is you can get a world that's too specific and doesn't have strong appeal. Those games seldom explicitly frame tone as the goal. As a consequence, even though a game might be urban fantasy noir, you still have players showing up with caricatures or parodies rather than characters, and their habits and expectations as hobbyists and genre enthusiasts carry over.

My goal was to create a game that I might want to run or play. I discovered along the way that meant I was going to have to teach people not just how to play it, but also how to think about it and how to feel about it. I didn't see that coming.  Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game reinforces tone through mechanics but does not enforce it with rules. I am setting the bar for tone a little high hoping that you try to meet it half-way but are not driven away.

"It's Part of the Fiction, not the Rules"

This is the logic that simplifies aspects of the rules. I didn't think of this idea myself, but I took it. It's a brilliant way to explain something that some of us already do, and by phrasing it so elegantly, it becomes a tool. I use this logic in a few places in this game, conditions and status effects for example, and the crap in your adventuring backpack.

Beginner Friendly?

I'm not stupid. I recognize this may not be beginner friendly and it may be niche. I suspect you need emotional intelligence, subtlety, and nuance, and plain interest in a game about that. Further, this is a game that de-emphasizes if not removes loot and experience, things that typically reward participation and investment. And uh, power scaling is a bit limited. Some people call that bad design. Others call it light gate keeping. Make a niche game, get niche interest.

Why 4d6 Drop the Highest/Lowest Matters

4d6 drop the lowest/highest is not intended to be a trivial mechanic for simplifying stacking situational bonuses. For that, use the Situational Modifiers rule in the core mechanics instead. Rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest die subtly encourages players to grow in depth rather than breadth. On a standard 3d6 roll, the chance of a critical hit (a natural 17-18) is 1.85%, but with 4d6 drop lowest, that rises to about 6.9%, nearly four times more likely. Also, the bell curve shifts! This doesn’t make characters superhuman; instead, it makes moments of mastery feel earned, and it makes a Light Bonus, a moment of hope, courage, or kindness, feel rewarded. A rare, powerful talent that grants 4d6 drop the lowest feels like someone who has honed a craft to a razor edge. Specializing deeply creates meaningful, reliable advantages. Likewise, spending 1 Stamina to roll 4d6 drop the lowest makes Stamina feel valuable and emotionally charged: a resource you spend when you must succeed. These mechanics reinforce niche protection, reward commitment, and support Bright-Dark’s tone of grounded competence shining through a wounded world

Simulation vs Adjudication

Dice in Bright-Dark are a tool for simulation, not adjudication. Roll when the fiction presents an uncertain physical outcome that cannot be resolved through description and rulings alone. Combat, climbing a cliff, leaping a gap, forcing a door, enduring a storm.

Adjudication is different. When the outcome can be reasonably judged through common sense, lived experience, or narrative logic, the GM rules on what happens. Social interaction, exploration, and problem-solving fall into this category.

Realism is the basis for adjudication and assigning Difficulty TNs. If a real person with a proficiency would reasonably succeed in real life, then the character succeeds in the game. TNs describe difficulty in a world based on realism, not to create artificial challenge or game balance.

Difficulty should be based on fiction grounded in realism. What is not intended is assigning TNs for the sake of the risk tuning or to make the game feel more challenging or fair.

Low Numbers Are Faster and More Meaningful

When you have 10-20 hit points and everyone is rolling 1d6 for damage, every hit feels like it matters. Other RPGs have scaling problems. Think about having 88 hit points and rolling 8d6 damage. Bigger numbers of hit points are less intuitive for our lizard brains. More damage dice means more rolling and counting. This slows the game down. "It's OK, I still have 60 hp" is metagaming, but it's not as bad as the real problem that massive pools of health spoil tension and abstracts damage too much. If you stab a creature for 2d6, is it stabbed or is it missing only a few hit points?

Related Post: Scaling Problems in TTRPGs - An Argument for Small Numbers

Capping hit points low means damage as a way of abstracting wounds and injuries stays grounded. Fewer damage dice mean faster resolution. Some hits might not hurt that bad. Some might hurt a lot. You can tell right away because the remainder is lower than you want and it makes you feel unsafe. Restrictions to recovering health (1 per day) means the wounds matter more. Healing is not trivial; it takes time or resources. It supports emotional stakes and human-scale stories. It keeps the mechanics simple, fast, and flexible for players and especially for GM.

Reaction Rolls / Morale Checks

Please, please, please use these mechanics! Reaction rolls make first-time encounters with an NPC unpredictable. That is the point. It randomizes one aspect people in the world. Morale checks are very important for portraying NPCs as characters who don't want to die. These rules mean that the GM does not prepare the story, the story emerges.

Loot and Progression

The lizard brain wants shiny things. Gamer brains want that feeling of growth and progression, and loot is sometimes a part of that. Unfortunately, this is antithetical to Bright-Dark. No bookkeeping or resource management. Players can't have whatever equipment their character wants, but they can have whatever equipment their character needs. The 3d6 roll-over system limits power scaling so that the upward cap is very low. Participants have to be open to accepting lore as loot, or a good reveal. Secrets that lead to more are treasure. Character growth is emotional, social, or intellectual, not power.

No Alignment?

Bright-Dark is not about moral relativism, moral objectivity, cosmic alignment, or philosophical frameworks. Bright-dark says at your core, you try to be kind, hopeful, and courageous.

Talents

A pool of feats and features that are de-coupled from race, background, or class. Choose one at the start. You can revisit it at character improvement. If you already have a talent and you want to improve it by one step (from a +1 to a +2, or from a +2 to a 4d6 drop the lowest) you can. Talent choices should suit the fiction or you spoil the fiction. "Wait, when did you learn magic? Off-screen?" That's disappointing. Finally, there's a cap on the number on talents so you don't have ten or twenty. This keeps them special. If you want to DIY, you can. It's encouraged. But I think I got everything. The game is not about mechanical social interaction, so talents that describe social traits (speech, mercantile, reading people, animal handling) are a no-no. Similarly, I reject a talent idea that made someone competent at figuring out an urban setting. Players should be familiarizing themselves with towns through exploration, not asking the GM "does my character know the answer to this problem?" or "can I roll to solve this problem?" 

Equipment

A decision was made to ignore conventional equipment rules. Bright-Dark's tone is not about resource tracking, bookkeeping, or encumbrance. Instead, we say "you start off with that" or "you arrive at a new settlement and you find things you need" or "you are able to forage that". Let's face it, many of you probably run your games with very loose equipment mechanics anyway. Now we just hand wave it. If you want it in your game, you can add it as a plug-in. It shouldn't hurt.

Magic

I love magic, but magic needs to be limited to feel special. Within the fiction, if everyone has magic, it's not extraordinary, it's ordinary, and that's lame. Within the game, too much magic means players have too many solutions to the game's challenges. That's more work for the GM. I believe I fixed the problem with magic within the fiction at least. Characters get one theme. That's it. Maybe they get a second theme if the story goes on long enough. This makes them more like mutants from X-Men or like benders from Avatar.

Which attribute do you use for magic? I left that up for the GM and the players. This invites participants to flavor their setting or character, not the game telling them what their choices are. I tell you enough.

Alchemy

Alchemy is like magic but with some restrictions to distinguish it from magic. "Fantasy Science" as broad theme, but the trade-off is limitations on what is at-hand right now. Alchemists shine in preparation. No bandolier of flasks. Instead, you are the pragmatic scientist of the group with a small field kit comparable to a medicine bag.

Adventure Prep

Adventures are character driven, not plot driven. You don't need to put a lot of effort into this and you don't need to stress. Three ingredients: Player Goals, Stakes, and Antagonists. Just have conversations with the players. Ask what their characters want and what happens if they fail. Ask if they have an antagonist in mind; this is for inspiration only. At the end of the day, the antagonist is a GM character.

No Social Mechanics

This game relies on resolving social confrontation through roleplay rather than mechanics. Conversations are had, not simulated, and outcomes are not resolved by rules, they're resolved by the player creativity, effort, and curiosity. Speech does not need to be a stat to be balanced against other stats. Conversations don't need to be codified or mechanized. Rolling for speech has several effects. 1. It discourages player participation. Players with poor speech stats tend to let the players with good speech stats to the talking. 2. It can make the outcome of the scene feel contrived or forced. 3. It punishes player effort and discourages player creativity by making them roll with bad characters stats even when they make really good speeches. 4. High speech rolls can take agency of GM characters away from the GM similar to a magical condition that effects will or the mind.

Animal Companions

You don't need mechanics for animals. Have you ever had a pet? They have an attitude or temperament. They're either open to you or they're not. You can warm up to them with time, familiarization, and food, but you can't roll dice and make them your best friend. If they're already a trained animal or pet, they're reliably friendly or useful. If it's wild, then it depends on the animal, but most are not. If in doubt, use Reaction Rolls for their attitude, use Morale Checks if there's danger. Boom.

Player Agency

Players make choices, then the GM reacts. The world reacts and the NPCs react to player character choices. There is no right solution to a problem, only their solution. The game relies on improv. When players get really invested, the GM sets up the scenario, but the players take charge of what happens next and puts the GM on the backfoot. That's fun.

This also needs to be said. There are no rules and mechanics to roll dice and tell the players how they or their characters feel. That's cheap. Only magical effects can do that. If you can't make the players feel a certain way, then the effect of a scene or situation that is intended to evoke feelings has simply not worked.

No Pausing the Movie to Talk About the Movie

This is a principle of Bright-Dark. People show up to play, not to talk about playing. Embody your character. You're in this scene. Here's what's around here. Here are the stakes. What do you do? That's it. Don't ask about the rules. Don't ask about how the GM will make a ruling. You are the character right now. What would they do? Describe it.

Why The Examples of Play Matter

Bright-Dark is a tone-first, human-scale RPG. Its rules are intentionally light, so the way players interact with the fiction matters as much as the mechanics themselves. These examples of play are not just demonstrations of procedure; they are demonstrations of philosophy. They show how Bright-Dark feels at the table.

Exploration Example of Play

The exploration example teaches descriptive play. Players describe what their characters do, not what they roll. The GM responds with sensory detail rather than binary success or failure. Meaning emerges from what the players observe, interpret, and deduce. Exploration becomes a process of discovering the world’s wounds and stories, not a checklist of skill tests.

Combat Example of Play

The combat example shows that Bright-Dark does not treat violence as a separate mode of play. Conflict emerges naturally from the fiction, and the GM resolves all actions simultaneously. The scene demonstrates human-scale danger, emotional stakes, and the idea that antagonists are wounded people rather than monsters. Combat ends not with victory, but with fear, mercy, and pursuit, reinforcing the game’s tone.

Social Interaction Example of Play

The social interaction example is the emotional core of Bright-Dark. It shows how characters resolve conflict through empathy, vulnerability, and narrative truth rather than persuasion mechanics. NPCs reveal wounds, shields, and redeeming traits through conversation. Players identify needs, make offers, and build trust. Social scenes resolve through connection, not charisma rolls.

Why These Examples of Play Are Long

These examples are intentionally detailed. Bright-Dark is a game about tone, emotion, and grounded storytelling; things that cannot be taught through short snippets. These scenes model the habits and instincts that make the game work: caution, empathy, curiosity, restraint, and emotional honesty. They are not just instructions; they are invitations into the world and tone of Bright-Dark.

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