Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Alchemy

Alchemy blends craft, intuition, and wonder. This section explains how characters create potions, salves, and strange mixtures that reflect the world’s wounded beauty.

ALCHEMY

Fantasy Science

Alchemy is not magic, it’s fantasy science. Potions, mixtures, and concoctions behave the way a common person imagines science might work in a fantasy world: plausible, imperfect, and never miraculous but just enough.

Crafting

Crafting potions is automatic in a workshop or laboratory. In the field, you rely on a portable kit, and results are not guaranteed. Crafting time, materials, costs, skill, and tools are hand-waved for the sake of play.

Tools and ingredients exist in the fiction, not in inventory slots.

Theme

Alchemy is freeform. Describe the potion you want to create within the broad theme of "Fantasy Science". Effects should be grounded in chemistry, biology, herbalism, metallurgy, or similar pseudo-scientific ideas.

Limitations

Some ingredients are rare or costly, and mixtures spoil quickly. You cannot hoard potions or outfit allies with an arsenal. Your workshop may store preserved ingredients, but not finished mixtures.

You can maintain two prepared potions at a time. Creating a new one forces you to discard or destabilize an old one.

This keeps alchemy meaningful without complex resource management.

Field-Crafting (Unstable Results)

Crafting in the field with your portable kit is unreliable. When using, consuming, or applying a potion crafted in the field, roll 3d6 + Mind vs TN 12 to determine success.

• Success: The potion works as intended.
• Failure: The potion is flawed, weak, or unreliable.
• Critical Failure: A complication occurs, determined by the fiction or the GM.

When in doubt about crafting time, assume one potion requires at least one hour; a non-trivial amount of time in a potentially dangerous space.

One assistant can meaningfully contribute by adding their mechanical bonuses if they're also an alchemist. They cannot reduce crafting time.

Botched Potions

You cannot know whether a potion works until a full dose is tested (micro-testing is inadequate). It’s possible to accidentally poison someone or make them sick with a bad mixture.

Important: Failures are never catastrophic. They are scientific imperfections, not explosions. This keeps field-crafting interesting without discouraging it.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Magic

Magic and Mages in Bright-Dark

Magic is not common or ordinary. It's rare and mysterious like a wonder, and dangerous too. It's also a mark of quiet prestige as the path of magic teaches you how small you are in the world, while potentially making you bigger in it. People do not casually wield magic openly or show it off. They respect it and fear it.

Magic is not a skill you improve at through study and practice. Skills are natural, technical. This is something supernatural. It's harnessed by knowledge, emotion, or will. You improve your knowledge, you grow in emotion, you build your will. Improving these qualities improves your use of magic.

Mages who misuse magic are hated. Mages are sought by those who want power.

MAGIC

Magic in Bright-Dark is shaped by will, theme, and story, not by lists of spells. It is flexible, creative, and narrative-first.

Themes

Each character’s magic is limited to a theme. A theme defines the style and limits of their magic. Most character have one theme. A rare few have two themes if it suits their story, and this typically describes characters who feel more mystical, trained, or unusual. No character should have more than two themes.

Example themes: Fire, illusion, movement, summoning, healing, shadow, memory, stone, wind, etc.

Themes are intentionally broad. They give players direction without restricting creativity.

Casting Magic

When a player wants to cast a spell, they:

• Describe the intended effect in the fiction.
• Roll vs the difficulty of the spell type: Minor Spell (TN 9) or Major Spell (TN 12).
• The player rolls 3d6 + Attribute + Talent bonus to see if the magic succeeds. Refer to the Combat Mechanics subsection in the Combat Section for more on magic mechanics.

There is no spell catalog. Magic is shaped by imagination, not by rules. This encourages players to stay engaged with the story rather than disengage to check mechanics.

Magic and the Setting

Magic is limited by the tone of the world. In Bright-Dark:

• Magic is rare, mysterious, and dangerous.
• Magic does not break physics.
• Magic has lower, middle, and upper limits defined by the setting.
• Magic may be powerful, but never superpowered.
• Magic is wondrous, but never effortless.

This helps players understand what is possible, what is risky, and what is forbidden.

Scale of Effects

Minor Spells

• Difficulty TN 9
• Small effects, immediate, personal, or subtle. One condition with a duration of the combat or 1d6 in damage or healing.
• Cost: 1 Ether

Major Spells

• Difficulty TN 12
• Large effects, dramatic, wide, lasting, or powerful. Either a powerful single spell or an AOE.
• Powerful Single Spell: either two conditions, 2d6 damage / healing, or one condition + 1d6 damage / healing, on a single character or object.
• AOE (area of effect): One condition or 1d6 in damage or healing affecting characters within a space (a diameter about 6" or one pencil length across); 
• -Cost: 2 Ether for a single powerful attack, 2-3 Ether for an AOE.

World-changing effects are impossible.

Failure

• On a failure, the spell fizzles and the caster loses 1 Ether.
• On a critical failure, the spell also misfires and creates a complication determined either by the fiction or the GM. This keeps magic dangerous and interesting.

Signature Spell (Optional Rule)

A signature spell is a single, named magical effect tied to your theme. Whenever you cast that specific spell, you gain +1 to your spellcasting roll. Signature spells deepen your magical identity without expanding your theme. 

Signature spells are unlocked through story, not mechanics.

A character may gain a signature spell during a moment of emotional clarity, through a ritual or sacrifice, by interacting with a wound, by learning from a spirit or mentor, through a magical misfire, or by reaching a personal milestone.

Signature spells should feel earned, personal, and tied to the character’s journey.

Magic Talents

If you are a magic-user, you may choose one of these talents as part of character improvement.

• Magic Speech: Magic words are their own language, and some creatures speak in this language. Any magic-user may have a broken understanding, but you are fluent as if a native speaker.
• Magic Sense: You faintly sense the presence of nearby magic.
• Ritual Magic: You may cast a spell as a ritual by sacrificing something meaningful (such as 1 Health or a precious item). The ritual takes about 10 minutes and automatically succeeds.
• Magic Journeyman: Add +1 to spellcasting rolls.
• Magic Master (Prerequisite: Magic Journeyman): Add +2 to spellcasting rolls. Replaces the +1 from Magic Journeyman.
• Magic Overcharge: Spend 1 additional Ether to add a bonus die to your spellcasting roll.
• Efficient Caster: Reduce Ether costs by 1 (minimum 1). Spend 0 Ether on a failure.
• Spellshield: Add +1 to resist spells or magical effects targeting you.
• Magic Reservoir: Your maximum Ether capacity increases by 1.
• Magic Recovery: You recover 1 Ether as part of a short rest.
• Magic Potency: Your spell deals +1 additional damage or healing, or its duration lasts an additional round.
• Magic Eater: You can absorb ether as an action by touching another creature. You recover +1 Ether, but you also feel your wound intensely. The creature must have at least 1 Ether to absorb which is lost. If the choice to take Ether from a friend comes from fear, despair, or temptation, gain 1 corruption.

Optional Magic Talents

• Spell Stability: You gain +1 to maintain ongoing magical effects.
• Theme Expansion: Your theme expands slightly (GM approval): fire → smoke; shadow → silence; memory → forgetting.
• Arcane Anchor: Once per day, you may stabilize a spell so it lasts longer than normal.
• Emotional Casting: When your spell aligns with your emotional state, gain +1 to the roll.
• Wound-Touched: Gain +1 when casting spells that interact with the world’s wounds.

Optional Rule: Wild Magic

Magic is unpredictable. Sometimes it surges. Sometimes it bites. There can be cursed areas that affect magic in ways that a magic-user can't anticipate. There can be personal curses that affect your control. Emotional instability or proximity to the world's wound can also cause wild magic.

When you cast a spell, designate one die of your 3d6 spellcasting roll to be your Wild Die.

After rolling:

If the Wild Die shows a 1 (backlash), subtract your highest die from the total result. This dramatically increases the chance of failure and complication.

If the Wild Die shows a 6 (surge), the Wild Die explodes! Roll an additional d6 and add it to your total. If that die is also a 6, it explodes again. This dramatically increases the chance of powerful, dramatic success.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Combat

Combat in Bright‑Dark is intended to be fast, simple, dangerous, emotional, and grounded. This section explains how fights work, how morale matters, and why violence is never trivial.

COMBAT

What Combat is in Bright-Dark

Combat in Bright-Dark is not something heroes seek out. Most characters are ordinary people trying to solve a problem, and danger is something they walk into because the world demands courage, not because they crave violence. Combat may not be the solution to a problem and often it gets in the way of the solution. That said, Bright-Dark characters can be warriors, but even warriors are shaped by the world’s wounds, not by glory.

This makes combat in Bright-Dark rare, dangerous, and emotionally charged. It happens when fear, grief, or desperation spill over, when a wounded being lashes out, when corruption twists something gentle into something violent, or when a moment of misunderstanding becomes a moment of crisis. Fights are short, messy, and costly. Combat is not about defeating enemies; it is about surviving encounters with wounded beings.

Combat should feel tense, intimate, and human-scale. Every strike matters. Every choice has weight. Violence always leaves a mark either on the mind, the body, the story, or the world.

Combat should feel like brief struggles for life and death, not a sport.

Why Combat Happens

Combat occurs when a creature lashes out from fear or pain, a corrupted place reacts violently, someone is protecting something fragile, misunderstanding escalates, desperation overwhelms reason, etc.

Combat is never the first option. It is what happens when gentler paths fail.

What Combat Costs

Violence always carries consequences: Physical injury, emotional strain, dimming wonder, worsening corruption, broken trust, lost opportunities, lingering guilt, etc.

Victory hurts. Survival scars.

How Combat Works

Bright-dark combat is fast and decisive. A few exchanges can determine the outcome. Characters act with urgency, not strategy. The goal is not to “win”, it is to end the danger with as little harm as possible.

During combat, characters may:

• Defend
• Flee
• Attempt to calm
• Restrain
• Protect
• Plead
• Sacrifice
• Attack, but hopefully only when necessary

Killing is possible, but never ideal. Mercy is powerful, but never guaranteed.

COMBAT PROCUDURE

Transitioning into combat in Bright-Dark should feel seamless. Rolling to see who goes first is immersion-breaking, so combat begins when the fiction demands it. The side that acts first in the narrative acts first in the game.

Side-Based Turn Order

Turn order is per side, not per character.

Each combat round has two turns:

• Player Side Turn
• GM Side Turn

After both sides act, the round ends and a new round begins. This keeps combat fast, tense, and focused.

Turns

On your turn, you may:

• Move without acting,
• Act without moving,
• Or move as part of your action.

*No tactical clutter. There are no double moves, no double actions, no delaying actions, and no interrupting another turn. Combat is decisive and immediate. Remember to describe your action like writing a line in a book!

Player-Side Turn Structure

Player turns have two phases:

1. Declaration Phase

All players declare what they intend to do. Once declared, actions cannot be changed. This reinforces Bright-Dark’s tone: fear, urgency, and commitment.

2. Resolution Phase

All players roll their dice. The GM determines and describes what happens based on the fiction and the rolls. This keeps combat flowing and prevents tactical micromanagement.

Resolving Combat

Combat ends when one side is defeated, surrenders, flees, or if both sides agree to cease fighting and parley.

Combat is not about killing enemies, it is about surviving encounters with wounded beings.

Retreat, Pursuit & Mercy

Retreat, pursuit, and mercy are moments where characters choose how violence ends, not how it continues.

Retreat

Retreat in Bright-Dark is not a tactical disengage, it’s a narrative choice to stop fighting and escape danger.

A side may retreat on its turn if the fiction allows it; if there is a path, if the characters are not surrounded or trapped. Retreat ends combat immediately. No roll needed. The GM adjudicates whether escape is possible.

Pursuit

The other side may pursue if the fiction supports pursuit. Pursuit is not a chase scene; instead, combat continues in a new space.

Mercy

A side may offer mercy for its turn. If the other side accepts, combat ends immediately. If the other side refuses, combat continues.

Concluding Combat

When the threat is gone, combat ends immediately.

There is no lingering initiative or round structure.

1. Apply conditions only if they matter.  

Conditions should be narrative, emotional, or tied to the wound.

2. Breather

The players may opt to take a short rest.

3. Check on unconscious characters.

Unconscious characters wake up within about 10 minutes; they do not benefit from a breather (short rest). Apply unconsciousness, wake-up, magical recovery, and deathblow rules.

4. Narrate the aftermath.  

The GM describes how the world settles, how the wound reacts, and how the tone shifts.

5. Loot only if meaningful.  

Looting bodies spoils the tone of Bright-Dark. Items should matter emotionally or narratively, not mechanically.

Combat cleanup should be simple, quiet, and narrative; a moment of breath before the world’s wounds speak again.

Combat Mechanics

Attack Rolls

Roll 3d6 + Attribute + Talent against the opponents Defense TN. On a hit, roll damage.

Damage Rolls

On a successful hit, roll damage. Damage is subtracted from Health.

• Barehanded damage: 1 damage + Strength + Talent 
• Weapon damage: Weapon Damage Die + Attribute + Talent.

Critical Hits

If your natural 3d6 result before adding modifiers is 17 or 18, that's a critical hit. Critical hits are rare moments of precious luck, not skill. They are the hit that somehow bypasses defense and lands just right. They are dangerous. On a critical hit, add 2d6 damage to your damage roll.

• Natural 17-18 = critical hit
• Natural 3-4 = miss; narratively appropriate but not punishing fumble at GM discretion

Dual-Wielding

Characters holding a weapon in each hand may choose which weapon to strike with. If they want to attack with both weapons, they:

• Make one attack roll with a situational modifier of -1
• Roll both damage rolls, but take the best result and discard the lowest result

Defending

When you defend, add +1 Situational Modifier to your Defense TN until your next turn. Your unarmored Defense TN is 8. Defense TN is based on armor; see the Equipment section for armor values.

Defending does not stack with other defensive actions. It simply represents bracing, guarding, or taking a more cautious stance.

Range

Range describes the distance of attacks, including spells. Bright-Dark assumes 5 feet as a grid space if gridded combat is used. One pencil or pen is about 6 inches and can represent 30 feet. Use these!

• Close: Within 5 feet. Melee attacks. Long weapons may reach 10 feet.
• Near: 6-30 feet. The limit of thrown weapons.
• Far: 31-60 feet. Ranged weapons and spells take -1 Situational Modifier to hit.
• Distant: 61-120 feet. Ranged weapons and spells take -1 to hit Situational Modifier; this is the limit of most ranged weapons and spells.

Range penalties apply to the attack roll, not to damage.

MOVEMENT SPEED

Movement is intentionally simple. There are three movement speeds:

Normal Movement

30 feet (one pencil length) per combat turn. Most creatures, including humans, move at Normal speed.

Slow Movement

15 feet (half a pencil length) per combat turn.

Used when:

• Injured, Sick, Poisoned, Encumbered (within the fiction, not a mechanic)
• Restrained if the fiction still allows movement
• Crossing hazardous or difficult terrain
• Affected by a condition that reduces movement
• Humans use Slow Movement when climbing, swimming, crawling, or burrowing

Fast Movement

45 feet (one and a half pencil lengths) per combat turn.

Used by:

• Creatures we assume are much faster than humans (horses, etc.)
• Flying creatures
• A character benefiting from a magical condition

Flying creatures fall if their flight is impaired, hitting the ground in the same combat round and instantly taking fall damage (1d6 per 10 feet).

UNCONSCIOUSNESS

When a character reaches 0 or less Health, treat as 0 Health, and they fall unconscious.

Waking an Unconscious Character

An unconscious character does not get their own rolls to wake up. Another character may spend an action to shake or rouse an unconscious ally. Roll an unmodified 3d6 vs TN 14, and the character wakes with 1 Health.

Environmental effects that vigorously shake or jolt a character may also trigger a wake-up attempt using the same TN.

If multiple characters help, the GM may grant a Light Bonus depending on the situation.

A Bright-Dark setting is low-magic. If Health is magically restored to 1 or more, consciousness is immediately regained.

Radiant Moments (see the Game Master section) automatically succeed at TN 14 or less, allowing a guaranteed wake-up.

Automatic Recovery

An unconscious character wakes automatically after 10 in-game minutes, unless the GM determines the situation prevents it (ongoing danger, magical effects, etc.). They awaken with 1 Health.

Critical Hit or Massive Damage

If the unconsciousness was caused by a critical hit or massive damage, the character is dizzy for the rest of the day. Massive damage means the character loses half or more of their maximum health in a single hit.

Dizzy

A character suffers a brief loss of balance and clarity. They take a situational modifier of -1 on rolls involving balance, precision, or focus until they rest for a full night.

Death

If a character is unconscious and is attacked, the attack hits automatically and is treated a deathblow.

Don't do anything you wouldn't do in real life and play your character like you care what happens to them!

COVER

Cover is intentionally simple.

• Half Cover: The character is partially obscured by a solid obstacle. Apply a -1 Situational Modifier to hit characters in half cover.
• Full Cover: The character is fully obscured by a solid obstacle. The character cannot be targeted directly.

Characters can be obstacles. If cover is involved and the attacker rolls a natural 3–4 fumble, the attack automatically hits the obstacle providing cover, even if that obstacle is another character.

CALLED SHOTS

Attacks normally target the torso. If a character aims for a specific body part, use the Situational Modifier rule:

• Limbs: -1
• Head: -1

Called shots are used to impose penalties or effects in addition to damage. Examples include:

• Disarm a foe (limb)
• Impair attack or damage rolls (limb injury)
• Blind (head)
• Stun or stagger (head)
• Reduce movement speed (limb injury)
• Trip (limb)

When players get creative, reward creativity. Strict mechanical interpretation of rules discourages creative play. Bright-Dark thrives on flexible, narrative adjudication.

SUBDUING ATTACKS (NON-LETHAL ATTACKS)

NPCs reduced to 0 Health are normally dead. A character may declare a subduing attack to knock an opponent unconscious instead of killing them.

Subduing attacks use the same attack roll but take a -1 Situational Modifier.

If the attack reduces the target to 0 Health or less, treat the target as having 0 Health and unconscious, not dead.

Intent matters. Using the pommel of a sword or striking with the flat of the blade is subduing. Stabbing someone in the gut is not.

Striking an unconscious opponent is a deathblow. It counts as beating them to death.

SPELLCASTING ROLLS

Spellcasting uses the same core mechanic as attacks: Roll 3d6 + Attribute + Talent vs the spell’s TN.

• Minor Spells: TN 9
• 1d6 of damage / healing, or one condition to one character or object
• Major Spells: TN 12
• either 2d6 damage / healing to one character or object, or
• 1d6 damage / healing and one condition to one character, or
• 1d6 of damage / healing, or one condition to a space up to one pencil length in diameter. Players may describe the space.

The Attribute used depends on the caster’s magical style. Players choose this at character creation.

• Mind: Arcane, studied, or knowledge-based magic
• Will: Spiritual magic
• Emotion: Wild or emotional magic

Results of spellcasting rolls:

• On a success: The spell works as intended and the caster spends the Ether cost.
• On a failure: The spell fizzles; the caster spends 1 Ether.
• On a critical hit: The GM applies a bonus effect appropriate to the fiction.
• On a fumble (natural 3-4): The spell miscasts; the GM applies a complication appropriate to the fiction.

One Action, One Roll

Spellcasting is intentionally fast and intuitive. Never break down actions into multiple steps with die rolls to resolve each step.

A successful spell roll means the spell works exactly as intended. Players do not roll to cast and then roll again to hit or apply effects. Minor and Major spell TNs keep spellcasting simple and prevent multi-roll magic. Magic is balanced by Ether, a limited resource.

NPC Spellcasting

NPCs do not use the player spellcasting system. They either roll to hit or the player rolls to avoid depending on the spell’s delivery.

If the spell works like a melee or ranged attack, the NPC rolls: 3d6 + Attribute vs the PC’s Defense TN

If the spell splashes, flashes, mists, flames, bursts, radiates, waves, or relies on eye contact, sound, or presence, the player rolls to resist, avoid or endure. The GM chooses the appropriate defense based on the fiction.

• Must Be Dodged: 3d6 + Agility + Talent
• Must Be Endured: 3d6 + Endurance + Talent
• Must Be Resisted: 3d6 + Will + Talent

This subsection is about spellcasting mechanically in combat. Read the Magic section for more on magic.

Miscellaneous Movement

This subsection is about concepts, not mechanics or rules. Let these concepts live in the fiction. Don't worry about them mechanically.

• Turn Speed: Sometimes creatures must move forward to turn around. They cannot pivot in place and change direction. This can be creatures with long, inflexible bodies, creatures at full stride, and many creatures that fly or swim.
• Hover: Hovering describes a creature who can stop in mid-air and move in any direction (omni-directional) like a helicopter, a honeybee, or a hummingbird. Some winged creatures can hover in place in short bursts, for simplicity, we do not treat them as having hover flight.
• Flying: Describes a how creatures with wings like airfoils fly. They must constantly move forward and generate lift to stay aloft. Some can compensate for their turn speed with an aerial maneuver. For simplicity, they cannot ascend more than 10 ft per combat turn, but they can descend any distance rapidly.

UNDERWATER COMBAT

Humans and similar fantasy races cannot hold their breath for very long while engaging in extraneous activity such as combat. Characters can fight underwater for four rounds. Each round after that, characters automatically lose 1 Stamina at the end of their turn. At 0 Stamina, they're unconscious even though they may have plenty of Health (see unconscious rules in the Combat section).

All actions within reason are considered situationally penalized by -1 while underwater including escaping grapples and attack rolls with all weapons except for attacks made with a dagger or spear. The range of Ranged all weapons are reduced to Near range (30 feet).

Mundane fire does not harm characters underwater. Magical fire is half as effective.

FALL DAMAGE

Characters who fall great distances get hurt when they hit the ground. Roll 1d6 damager per 10 feet fallen. For simplicity, characters fall the entire distance to the ground in one turn.

RIDING A MOUNT

Horses are considered a mount. When a character rides a mount, the mount's movement speed replaces the characters automatically. If the mount is trained to accept a rider, they automatically obey the rider's commands. For simplicity, we assume a player character knows how to ride a mount; no roll needed.

A GM may call for a reaction roll to determine if a mount is willing to accept a rider. Many animals used as mounts are skittish including horses; The GM may make a morale roll for the mount if the rider steers them into danger or frightening situations. A war horse is trained to ride into danger and does not need to roll for morale.

If the mount rejects the rider either due to a poor reaction roll or a failed morale roll, the mount may retain its turn. It can move independently and it can use its action to attempt to buck the rider. The rider must succeed a 3d6 + Strength roll vs TN 12 or fall off and take 1d6 damage.

Jousting, Charging and Trampling: A rider armed with a lance adds an additional 1d6 to damage rolls when charging. If struck in this way, that character falls prone unless they make a 3d6 Strength Roll vs TN 12. If the character is riding a horse when struck by a lance at charge, they must make that roll or fall and take 1d6 fall damage. If a horse tramples on the prone body of a character, the character takes 1d6 damage.

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Bright‑Dark 3d6 — Version 0.9 Now Available

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Social Interaction

Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game is not about rolling dice to read or influence NPCs. Players are expected to resolve social interactions with roleplay and description. A simple conversational goal is here to help guide player. GMs have rules for simple and complex NPCs in the Game Master section.

SOCIAL INTERACTION

Social interaction is not diplomacy mini-games or attribute checks. In Bright-Dark, social interaction is just exploration and discovery of a character through conversation. The entirety of a social encounter should be handled by roleplay, not game procedure, rules, or mechanics (with one exception). Keep these scenes freeform.

Not every NPC will challenge the players and not every conversation will have stakes. When an NPC does challenge the players, treat it like a social puzzle. Most are simple, not complex. Players goals are:

1. Learn the NPC's needs,
2. Offer something to satisfy the NPCs' needs in exchange for the NPC satisfying player needs, and
3. Overcome objections held by the NPC if any

An objection is a fear, doubt, or other reason why NPCs may reject player offers.  Not all NPCs have objections. Sometimes NPC objections cannot be overcome. You don't need to solve every NPC. Look for how failure may reveal new truths, tensions, or opportunities.

Treat NPCs as real people. Rely on your curiosity and creativity. Try to make them happy or at least understood. They will remember how you treated them.

To read an NPC, pay attention to the GM's portrayal and the GM's descriptions.  Read in between the lines. There may also be hints in the NPCs personal space or how other NPCs describe them when they're not around.

Violence

For most NPCs, violence is not their first choice, and they do not want to fight to the death. If combat begins, the conversation is not suspended or ended. The conversation can continue in fragments on each side's turns.

The One Exception

The Reaction Roll (see Core Mechanics) is rolled openly by the GM when the players first meet a new NPC. It randomly determines the NPC's starting attitude towards the players. This creates an emergent story rather than a prepared one.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Exploration

Exploration is the heart of Bright-Dark play. This section teaches how to navigate wounded forests, forgotten shrines, dim caverns, and quiet villages, and how to describe what your character does moment by moment.

EXPLORATION

What Exploration in Bright-Dark Feels Like

Exploration in Bright-Dark is about discovery under risk. Players make choices, describe what they do, how they do it, uncover what is hidden, and learn things others might have missed, all while carefully managing risk in a wounded world. The GM responds with sensory detail. Meaning emerges from what the players observe, interpret, and deduce.

Exploration in Bright-Dark is not about finding treasure for treasure's sake. Exploration leads to intended discoveries that advance the story and unintended discoveries that reveal new truths, risks, or opportunities. Not everything found is sought, but everything found matters.

Bright-Dark characters still find treasure, whether they intended to or not. Treasure is not about bookkeeping or wealth accumulation; it exists to satisfy the feeling of progress and reward. Characters usually find just enough treasure to sustain their adventures. Treasure may take many forms: coin, supplies, tools, relics, curiosities, or small wonders. What matters is not its monetary value, but how it helps the characters continue their journey.

Exploration Procedure

A conversational procedure for discovering wounded places.

Exploration in Bright-Dark is slow, sensory, and emotional. The world is dimming, and every major place carries a wound. Players explore by asking questions, describing actions, and following their curiosity.

There are four parts to exploration:

Describe → Interact → Endure → Discover

Mechanically lite. No tables. No rolls unless needed.

1. DESCRIBE (GM)

The GM describes what is obvious, subtle, what is felt, heard, smelled, strange, wounded, etc.

Information that is reasonably obvious to the character is given freely by the GM.

Rooms have moods. Major locations have wounds. A location's wound is the source of a pressure that the players must identify and tend to. It is the emotional truth of the place; the hurt that shapes its atmosphere, its dangers, and its behavior. It can be an extinguished lantern, a shrine desecrated by a cursed object, a broken relic, a missing artifact, tainted water, a disturbed grave, or a rotting infection. The wound expresses a grief, a need unfulfilled, hunger, burden, temptation, confusion, loss, loneliness, or fear.

The wound is not a lock, not a puzzle, and not a quest objective. It's the hurt of the place. Players discover it through curiosity, interaction, and attention, not through mechanics.

If the players discover the wound, they can attempt to heal, south, or otherwise address the wound and make the location a little brighter.

2. INTERACT (Players)

Players describe what they do, examine, touch, listen, test, follow, question, comfort, investigate, etc.

If the action is:

• Safe → the GM narrates the result
• Risky → roll 3d6 + appropriate attribute + talent
• Uncertain → roll 3d6 + appropriate attribute + talent
• Emotional/magical → roll 3d6 + appropriate attribute + talent (most often Will or Emotion)

No rolling dice to notice, to investigate, or to interact. Rolls only resolve uncertainty or risk.

3. ENDURE (GM + Players)

Not all wounds are dangerous to the body, mind, senses, etc. Some are. When players meaningfully interact with a major location’s wound, the GM may call for an Endurance roll if the wound pushes back:

Roll 3d6 + Endurance + Talent

On failure, the GM chooses one consequence based on the nature of the wound:

• Loss of a resources (Health, Stamina, or Ether).
• Become shaken. You suffer a brief loss of composure. -1 situational penalty on rolls involving courage or clarity until you rest.
• Suffer a condition (poison, fatigue, disease, etc., as appropriate).
• Attract a wounded creature’s attention. Note that attracting its attention means the creature becomes aware of a disturbance. Whether is detects the players or appears is dependent on the creature's nature, mood, and wound.

If the wound harms the body → Health loss

Examples: The wound bites, burns, cuts, chills, or lashes out.

If the wound exhausts or drains → Stamina loss

Examples: The wound weighs on the body, drains strength, or exhausts effort.

If the wound is magical or spiritual → Ether loss

Examples: The wound pulls at your spirit, siphons energy, or disrupts inner balance.

Consequences are diegetic, not abstract. Endure is the emotional cost of exploring wounded places.

Rooms do not cause Endurance rolls; Major locations do.

4. DISCOVER (GM)

When players meaningfully engage with the place, ask the right questions, follow the emotional thread, interact with the wound, show curiosity, etc.

then...

The GM reveals the wound of the location. This is not a reward. It is not loot. It is not a mechanical unlock. It is the truth of the place: a grief, a fear, a memory, a corruption, a longing, a sorrow, a broken wonder, etc.

Discovery is narrative, not mechanical.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Rest & Recovery

Healing in Bright‑Dark is physical and emotional. This section explains how characters rest, recover, and regain strength after danger or hardship.

REST & RECOVERY

Rest is the moment where hope returns. There are short rests and full rests. There are also rules for when either of these rests are unsafe or magical.

Short Rest (about 10 minutes)

Conscious characters who take a breather after a scene of exertion, such as combat or a chase, may recover 1 Stamina. They may only recover Stamina spent in the most recent scene of exertion, not from earlier scenes.

A short rest may allow any character to recover 1 Ether only if the moment is peaceful, meaningful, or emotionally resonant.

Full Rest (Night’s Sleep)

A full rest is a night of sleep in a safe place. During a full rest, characters recover all Stamina, all Ether, and 1 Health. They remove dizzy, shaken, fatigue, and most minor conditions. Severe conditions (poison, curse, corruption) remain untreated. If you choose a full day of bedrest, recover 2 health instead of 1.

Any Unsafe Rest

If characters attempt to rest in a wounded place, cursed site, or dangerous environment, they recover Stamina but not Ether or Health. Conditions may linger. 

The GM may call for an Endurance roll if the environment’s wound presses on them during an unsafe rest.

Magical or Ritual Rest

Some sacred or meaningful places such as shrines, lanterns, sacred groves, forgotten altars, may offer special rest that provides its own benefits in addition to any other rest taken.

As narratively suitable and at the GM’s discretion, these places may restore Ether, restore Health, remove conditions, grant clarity or visions, or soothe wounds.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Equipment

 EQUIPMENT

No Catalog

There is no catalog of weapons, armor, or other items. In this game, rely on your creativity when picking out starting equipment or shopping for new items. What do you need to solve the next problem? Is it available within the fiction?

Starting Equipment

At character creation, your character begins with all equipment that suits their concept, background, and story. Equipment should support the character’s identity and the tone of the game, not restrict it.

GMs should restrict starting characters from having armor that grants a Defense TN of 13 or higher, as it makes them too hard to hit and spoils the tone of Bright-Dark.

Weapons

Most weapons deal 1d6 + modifier damage. Strength is added to melee weapons; Agility is added to ranged weapons. For variety, the GM may use the following guidelines:

• Improvised weapons: 1d3 damage
• Light or small weapons: 1d6-1 damage (minimum 1)
• Average weapons: 1d6 damage
• Large, heavy, or two-handed weapons: 1d6+1 damage

Armor

Armor provides some protection. These Defense TNs are guidelines; the fiction determines what armor looks like.

• Unarmored: TN 8
• Light Armor (Quilted or Leather Armor): TN 9
• Medium Armor (Banded Armor, Mail Armor): TN 10
• Heavy Armor (Plate), (rare): TN 11
• Shield, Wooden: (TN +1)

Defense TN

Defense TN describes how exposed you are rather how protected, well defended, or skilled at defense you are. Defense TN reflects the moment, not the character. Armor changes your Defense TN, not attributes like Agility. Situational Modifiers (see Core Mechanics) in play due to exposure may apply to rolls to hit you:

• Partial Cover or darkness: -1
• Flanked or Being Surrounded: +1
• Grappled, Knocked Down, or Prone: +1
• 0 (zero) Stamina or conditions like sickness: +1

Item Management and Encumbrance

There are no slots and no encumbrance rules. Bright-Dark is not about simulation or bookkeeping, it's about the fiction and the tone. If a player wants equipment that feels excessive or out of tone, the GM may ask how the character carries it or how it fits their concept.

Players and GMs should consider what is appropriate, grounded, and fitting for the character. Small or common items (rope, chalk, flint, quiver of arrows, etc.) are assumed to be included if they make sense.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Character Improvement

Bright‑Dark characters grow slowly and meaningfully. Improvement reflects healing, learning, and quiet perseverance, not power fantasy. This section explains how characters advance over time.

CHARACTER IMPROVEMENT

Character improvement should expand depth, not breadth.

Improvement is milestone-based. A milestone is achieved when players complete an adventure and either redeem a shadow, restore a light, or fail and bring ruination. Milestones typically occur every one to three sessions, depending on the pace of the story. 

At each milestone, a character may choose one of the following:

• Improve one attribute by 1 (up to +3)
• Add a talent (Recommended cap of 3 Talents)
• Add +2 to maximum Health (cap 20 + Strength modifier)
• Add +1 to one resource (Stamina or Ether, up to their caps which are defined in the Resources section)

Some improvements may require training or guidance from an NPC if they do not fit the character’s established experience. For example, learning to swim or cast magic without prior exposure may require a tutor.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Character Creation

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Characters in Bright‑Dark are ordinary people carrying quiet burdens. This section guides you through creating a grounded, human character whose emotional journey matters as much as their abilities. You'll notice one small subsection towards the bottom that covers non-human player characters in Bright-Dark.

Every Bright-Dark character begins with a wound: a fear, regret, longing, or quiet grief; This shapes their choices. The Create a Wound subsection helps you write a single, powerful sentence; this is a roleplay prompt that describes your character's internal conflict and might hint at their goals and aspects of their personality.

Bright-Dark is a player-skill-forward game. Attributes only cover what players cannot simulate themselves: physical capability, inner strength, and magical force. This subsection explains each attribute and how modifiers work.

Talents represent learned skills, practiced techniques, or special aptitudes. They give characters identity without turning them into superheroes. This subsection explains how talents work, how talents they support the fiction, and how to modify the talents or create your own.

Resources are your Health, Stamina, and Ether. This subsection explains what they are used for and how to interpret them in a Bright-Dark tone.

CHARACTER CREATION

Player characters must suit the tone and setting of the game. Bright-Dark characters are ordinary people who become adventurers because they care about something. They are rarely extraordinary and never superhuman. They have three quiet traits:

• Kindness. They are warm-hearted even in the face of harshness.
• Hope. They believe tomorrow can be better even if today is hard.
• Courage. They step forward when it matters, even when afraid.

After you've created a wound, determined your attributes and modifiers, chosen your talent, and established your starting resources, go to the Equipment section.

CREATE A WOUND

Every character in a Bright-Dark world carries a wound: a quiet grief, fear, or truth they struggle to face. It is the emotional tension (or pain point) that makes your character human and gives their choices weight.

Think of your wound as a roleplaying prompt that helps you roleplay with depth, not a constraint that limits you. 

Create a wound by writing a single sentence describing something your character carries inside them. It might be a fear, a regret, a loss, a burden, a longing, a temptation, or a doubt.

Generic Examples:

“I’m afraid I’ll fail the people who trust me.”

“I can’t forgive myself for surviving when others didn’t.”

“I don’t trust myself to make the right choice when it matters.”

“I’m terrified that the people I love will see who I really am.”

“I keep pretending I’m fine because I don’t know how to ask for help.”

“I want to be strong, but I’m afraid I’m only pretending.”

“I am burdened by this feeling that I was meant to do more than this.”

“I fear that kindness will be used against me again.”

"I'm tempted by wealth and power because then people might respect me."

“I’m haunted by the thought that I abandoned someone who needed me.”

"I regret that my past inaction got my loved ones hurt."

The wound explains why certain choices feel difficult, why hope feels fragile, and why moments of courage or kindness matter. Your wound is the emotional heart of your character’s journey; The place where your light and your darkness meet.

ATTRIBUTES & MODIFIERS

Attributes

Characters in Bright-Dark rely on their own skill, judgment, and creativity. Players solve puzzles, notice details, interpret clues, and interact socially through roleplay. Attributes only measure the things a character can do that cannot be handled by player skill alone.

Attributes fall into two groups: Physical and Inner.

Physical Attributes

These describe clear, intuitive aspects of the body.

Strength

Strength measures raw physical force. Use Strength when you strike in melee, lift, push, or break something, overpower an opponent, exert sudden force.

Endurance

Endurance measures stamina and toughness. Use Endurance when you resist fatigue, cold, poison, or pain, push through long exertion, survive harsh conditions, endure physical strain.

Agility

Agility measures speed, balance, and coordination. Use Agility when you dodge traps or certain magic effects, sneak or hide, climb, jump, or tumble, make ranged attacks.

Inner Attributes

These describe distinct, functional aspects of the mind and spirit. Each governs a different type of non-physical action. Players are expected to user their own intelligence, wisdom, charisma, luck, and creativity in play. These attributes are for mechanics.

Mind

Mind represents what you know and how you apply it. Use Mind when you operate or repair tools and mechanisms, analyze magical effects, recall useful lore, maintain mental focus during complex tasks.

Mind does not govern perception, puzzle-solving, or social insight; those rely on player skill.

Will

Will represents mental and spiritual resilience. Use Will when you resist fear, stress, or despair, withstand corruption or supernatural influence, maintain control during dangerous magic, hold your identity firm against spiritual pressure.

Will is about resistance and self-control.

Emotion

Emotion represents inner fire, passion, and the strength of feeling. Use Emotion when you cast magic fueled by passion, empathy, or courage, channel intense feelings into action, perform acts of bravery or self-sacrifice, express magic through connection or conviction.

Emotion is about feelings.

Why These Attributes Exist

Bright-Dark is a player-skill-first game. Attributes only simulate actions that cannot be solved by player reasoning, involve physical capability, involve inner strength or magical force, require mechanical resolution.

Perception, deduction, social interaction, and puzzle solving belongs to the players, not the character sheet.

Think about the inner attributes like this: Mind is what you know. Emotion is what you feel. Will is your self-control. This makes attributes simple, intuitive, and impossible to confuse.

Modifiers

A modifier is a number that describe an attribute. They are intuitive, small and meaningful.

Modifier Table

Modifier    Description

-3 Sickly, Injured, Cursed, Badly Poisoned, Blind

-2 Poor

-1 Below Average

 0 Average

+1 Good

+2 Excellent

+3 Peak Human Ability (Rare, World-class)

Note: Modifiers of +3 are rare and represent exceptional individuals. Most characters will fall between –1 and +2. -3 Modifiers are suggestions, not rules, and may be given temporarily by the GM when the fiction suits it.

Stat Arrays

Below are some choice arrays for statistics (modifiers). The GM chooses which array fits their campaign. Alternatively, a GM may create their own. Choose an array that matches the emotional tone of your campaign. Bright-Dark stories benefit from characters who feel vulnerable and human.

Players, distribute the modifiers from the campaign's array among your attributes as you please.

Ordinary characters begin play with:

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

Characters are capable and human, with one strong trait and one weakness.

Grounded, more vulnerable characters (best for Bright-Dark) begin play with:

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

Characters feel fragile, realistic, and emotionally grounded. Strengths matter, but weaknesses shape the story.

Gifted, above average characters begin play with:

+3, +1, 0, 0, 0, -1

Characters have one exceptional trait and generally competent abilities, suitable for slightly more heroic play.

Combining Modifiers (restated from the Core Mechanics)

The next section covers talents, which are separate from attributes. Some talents add a modifier to 3d6 rolls. A 3d6 roll can only benefit from one attribute and one talent at a time.

3d6 + attribute + talent bonus

Multiple talents never stack with the same roll. Use the attribute and talent that best fits the fiction.

 

Examples: A +2 attribute combined with a +2 talent represents excellent ability. A +3 stat combined with a rare talent represents peak human performance.

TALENTS

Talents distinguish your character. Choose one at character creation. Additional talents may be chosen during character improvement, but they must suit the fiction; one does not ordinarily become a magic-user, learn a new language, or gain a brand-new skill spontaneously.

This game encourages DIY. Here is some guidance for designing your own talents:

• Common, ordinary talents grant a flat +1 bonus to specific rolls.
• Uncommon, specially honed or trained talents grant a +2 bonus.
• Rare, powerful talents allow you to roll 4d6 and keep the highest three for certain checks.
• Some talents may grant a specialized skill, ability, craft, or magic that no one else ordinarily has.

As part of the DIY aspect of this game, an existing talent listed here may be improved one step at a time during character improvement, following the guidance above.

• Acrobat: Add +1 to rolls to balance, climb, tumble, vault obstacles, or move through tight or unstable spaces.
• Alchemist: Almost no one understands alchemy, but you do. You know a few basic recipes and can improvise new concoctions using the Mind attribute and the theme of "Fantasy Science." See the Alchemy Section for more.
• 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.
• Bushcraft: add +1 to tracking, foraging, pathfinding, and wilderness survival. You have practical knowledge of the wild and how to live in it.
• Diehard: Add +1 to resist fatigue, disease, poison, harsh conditions, long exertion, or heavy physical strain.
• Firearms: Firearms are rare and expensive. Most people do not know how to use them, but you do. Firearms are always loud enough to attract unwanted attention, and bright enough to momentary spoil night vision, but they deal 3d6 damage. On a critical failure, the gun jams and must be cleared as an action. Ammunition crafting is hand-waved for the sake of play, but materials for ammo are rare and costly such that you can reliably restock only a small amount at a time. Expect to carry about six shots.
• Hardy: Base maximum Health is 15 + attribute rather than 10 + attribute.
• Hunter: You have expertise in fighting a specific type of opponent. Choose: Wo/Man (i.e. outlaws), Local Beast (ordinary animals like wolves), Plants, or choose something of your own. Add a +1 to hit and damage against them, and to track them.
• Hurler: Extends normal throwing range from Near to Far.
• Lucky: critical hit range increases to roll of a natural 16 or higher rather than 17
• Marksman: You do not suffer penalties to hit due to range, and you do not suffer penalties to called shots while in Near range. 
• Magical Bloodline: Add +2 to resist magical charm and magical sleep
• 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.
• Polyglot: You can speak neighboring languages well enough to get by, though not fluently. You recognize their written forms and a few common words, but cannot fully read or write them. Your proficiency is utilitarian and depends on the fiction.
• Pugilist: Add +1 to rolls to grapple, to escape grapples, to make unarmed attacks, and to unarmed damage.
• Scholar: You’re well studied in various subjects. You gain a +1 to recall lore, history, and natural science.
• Shieldbearer: When using a shield, add +2 to Defense TN instead of +1.
• 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.
• Steady Presence: You and nearby allies gain +1 to resist fear, despair, stress, confusion, or magical influence. Something about your presence helps others hold emotionally steady in difficult moments.
• Thievery: add +1 to rolls to sneak, hide, pick locks, palm, lift or plant objects without notice, and perform delicate tasks with your hands.
• Quick Reflexes: Add +1 to rolls to dodge traps, avoid sudden danger, and respond to surprise.

RESOURCES

Your resources are Health, Stamina, and Ether. Each resource has starting values. At character creation, you get 3 points to distribute on top of that as desired. See the Rest & Recovery rules information about recovering lost resources.

Health

Begin play with maximum Health of 10 + Strength modifier. It's a measure of your physical condition. Lost health abstractly represents wounds and injuries. Recover 1 lost Health per day; 2 per day of dedicated bedrest in a place of safety (a town). At 0 or less Health, treat as 0, and you are unconscious. While unconscious, subsequent hits are deathblows. See more about Unconsciousness in the Combat section.

Health has a capacity of 20 + Strength. This describes the peak of the human body's ability to sustain wounds and injury.

Stamina

Spend 1 Stamina to you push yourself for one action. This lets you roll 4d6 and keep the highest three.

Begin play with maximum Stamina equal to Endurance (minimum 0). Maximum Stamina caps out at 5 + Endurance. Lose 1 Stamina if you fail a roll against fatigue. Recover all spent Stamina after finishing a night of sleep.

Note: Fatigue is not a mechanical condition. The consequence of having 0 Stamina is that you can no longer push yourself. Narratively, this can describe fatigue or general weakness, and so situational modifiers can apply.

Ether

Ether is only spent when casting spells. Minor spells cost 1 Ether, major spells cost 2+. 1 Ether is lost when a spell roll fails.

Begin play with maximum Ether equal to the best of either Mind, Will, or Emotion (player choice and it should suit the fiction). Maximum Ether caps at 5 + the better of Mind, Will, or Emotion. Recover all spent ether after finishing a night of rest.

Note: Ether is the substance that spirits and magic are made up. It permeates the whole world in trace amounts. This information may not be known, even to magic-users.

WHAT'S MISSING?

No catalog or mechanical rules for fantasy races. If the GM wants fantasy races, add them.

When you introduce fantasy races to Bright-Dark, ignore their traditional high-fantasy forms. They must be people first and archetypes second. Humanize them. They must be grounded, not mythic. Their fantasy should express the world's wounds. They must not overshadow the human-scale stakes.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - Core Mechanics

Bright‑Dark uses a simple 3d6 roll‑over system designed for clarity, fairness, and emotional pacing. This section explains how rolls work, how modifiers apply, when to roll, and why the system supports the tone of the game.

CORE MECHANICS

3D6 + MODIFIERS, ROLL OVER

Roll three six-sided dice, add one modifier from an attribute, and add one modifier from a talent (3d6 + attribute + talent). Meet or exceed a difficulty (described as a target number or TN). Most 3d6 rolls fall between 9-12, so small bonuses matter.

Combining Modifiers

Talents are separate from attributes. Some talents add a modifier to 3d6 rolls. A 3d6 roll can only benefit from one attribute and one talent at a time.

3d6 + attribute + talent bonus

Multiple talents never stack with the same roll. Use the attribute and talent that best fits the fiction.

DIFFICULTY SCALE

Difficulty of actions should feel intuitive and meets your expectation of a difficulty in a believable world. Refer to the scale below of Difficulty Target Numbers (or Difficulty TNs). If an action can reasonably succeed, no roll needed. Call for rolls when the outcome is uncertain and the consequences are dangerous or dramatically meaningful.

TN 6 Trivial (95% success)

TN 7 Trivial (91%)

TN 8 Very Easy (84%)

TN 9 Easy (74%)

TN 10 Standard  (62%)

TN 11 Standard (50%)

TN 12 Hard (37%)

TN 13 Very Hard (26%)

TN 14 Heroic (16%)

TN 15 Very Heroic (9%)

TN 16 Legendary (5%)

SITUATIONAL MODIFIERS

In some games, players get bonuses or penalties by making changes to the situation such as using a proper tool or getting help from an ally. These bonuses or penalties are called situational modifiers. They can be complex. This is messy for Bright-Dark.

In Bright-Dark, the GM may adjust the Difficulty TN of a roll by no more than ±1 to reflect the situation. No stacking. This does not represent a change in objective difficulty; it is simply a way to keep the math simple and the fiction clear.

Examples: Half-cover, defending, dual-wielding, subduing attacks, long range, called shots, surrounded or flanking, Darkness, obscuring features, hidden opponents, being grappled or prone, stormy weather, treacherous ground, tight spaces, physical conditions such as exhaustion, injury, sickness, shaken, or poison, broken or bad equipment, magic conditions, curses, blessings.

CONDITIONS & STATUS EFFECTS

Most conditions familiar to Fantasy TTRPGs are mechanical. In Bright-Dark, the statuses exist in the fiction, not the rules. They are left undefined so that the GM may adjudicate them as situational modifiers (see above mechanic) or story developments. Not all poisons or venoms need to be the same. Some reduce current health, some temporarily reduce attributes (reference the Modifier Table in the Attributes section). Some might reduce your movement speed to slow.

BRIGHT-DARK FANTASY GENRE-SPECIFIC MECHANICS

A bright-dark fantasy world’s tone (not morality) can be reinforced by these mechanics: Light Bonus and Darkness Penalty. Use them sparingly, yet meaningfully. A good rule of thumb is never for routine actions and always for emotionally charged choices.

Light Bonus

When acting with hope, courage, or protecting others, roll 4d6, keep the highest three.

Examples: Believing in hope in a dim situation, acting with courage despite fear, showing kindness that costs something, shielding others from harm, and actions that reinforce hope.

Darkness Penalty

When acting in despair, corruption, or darkness, roll 4d6, keep the lowest three.

Examples: Despair when a character has given up, even temporarily, corruption when the character taps into a harmful force or gives into temptation, displays malice or cruelty, when fear overwhelms judgment, or moments that make things worse emotionally.

FRACTIONS

If any fractions occur, always round in the player's favor. No exceptions. This is fast, intuitive, and generous.

FAILING FORWARD AT A COST

Typically, success and failure is pass or fail; however, if a player's roll is within 1 of the TN, a GM can use their discretion to allow characters to fail forward at a cost. The cost should suit the fiction. Consider player input for this.

This rule is about pacing rather than releasing tension because it avoids the game from stalling due to bad rolls. Good pacing is good for tension.

REACTION ROLLS

Reaction rolls determine the starting attitude of newly met NPCs. The GM rolls 3d6 + the Emotion modifier of the lead or nearest PC. Use the result to establish the NPC’s initial disposition.

Reaction Table

3d6 + Emotion modifier of the lead or nearest PC. Use this table as a guide. When in doubt, feel the dice.

Below is a Reaction Roll table showing five degrees of results. The GM should interpret the meaning of the result within the fiction. For example, Worst Case does not mean the NPC is automatically violent, the reaction is the worst reaction for that situation.

• TN 8 or Less: Worst Case
• 9-11: Unfavorable
• 12: Neutral
• 13-14: Favorable
• 15+: Best Case

Reaction rolls set the initial tone, not the entire relationship. Treat the result as an emotional cue, not a script. NPCs can warm up or cool down based on the PCs’ behavior.

MORALE CHECKS

Thinking, feeling creatures have a sense of self-preservation. They don't just fight to the death unless the fiction demands it.

When opponents have been reduced to half their collective Health or half their number, the GM makes a Morale Check.

Roll 3d6 vs the creature's Morale TN.

• If the result meets or beats the Morale TN: They keep morale and continue to fight.
• If the roll is below the Morale TN: They lose morale and may flee, surrender, hide, or attempt to parley.

Creatures who are brave have lower Morale TNs. Creatures who are cowardly have higher Morale TNs. Average creatures have a Morale TN of 10 or 11. 8 is brave, 13 is cowardly. Mindless creatures do not make morale checks.

Morale checks reflect fear, instinct, exhaustion, and the emotional reality of combat.

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Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game - How to Play

Bright‑Dark is played through conversation. This section teaches the core loop of play, how players describe actions, how the GM frames scenes, and how everyone collaborates to create a shared emotional experience. If you’re new to fiction‑first role‑playing, start here.

 

HOW TO PLAY

GAMEPLAY LOOP

Conversation is the medium of the game. The game has a simple gameplay loop:

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

It looks like this:

Fiction → Action → Resolution → New Fiction

Resolution may come from the GM’s judgment, from the logic of the fiction, or from a roll when the outcome is uncertain and meaningful.

WHAT PLAYERS DO

Don't just declare your actions, describe them. Describe what your character does, and how they do it. The intended outcome of your action should be clear to avoid confusion or misunderstanding. For example, don't say "I search the messy drawer", say "I carefully, thoroughly sift through the drawer, checking under and between everything. I empty it one item at a time and arrange them neatly on top of the desk."

Imagine your description is like writing a line in a book. Clear, concrete descriptions let the GM understand your intent and respond fairly.

If your character speaks, you may speak in-character, with or without a different voice or accent, or you may paraphrase what they say.

WHAT THE GAME MASTER (GM) DOES

GMs are like the narrator in a book, the kind where the narrator talks to the characters in the story but doesn't give anything away. You may ask the players what their characters are doing, or you may gently coax them into taking actions or revealing what their characters are feeling.

Think of yourself as controlling the camera: you choose what the players see first, and when to zoom in. You are responsible for showing the players what's in the scene. Use descriptions of what the players see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. Think about the mood, and start with the big things.

Example:

"The old library is quiet and cold. The air is oddly still. A soft light spills in from behind, revealing a few rows of dusty bookshelves. The shelves end only a few meters ahead, but far beyond them you catch a faint glint in the darkness, suggesting the room is much larger than it first appears."

The dimensions and features of the library, do not need to be literal and precise. You can and should rely on the players imagination to fill gaps. Again, start with big. If a player wants to pick a smaller part of the room to focus on, that is when you zoom in.

In running the game, it's important that you be fair, impartial, and consistent. That means allowing the characters to succeed or fail based on their choices. Don't help them when they're in danger or struggling to solve a challenge, but also, don't trick them or create impossible situations.

When portraying the non-player character(s) (NPC), that is your character. You portray them. You decide what they know, think, feel, and what they do and how. You don't need to be an excellent actor. You may rely on describing how the NPC expresses themself and how they sound, such as if they're clearly angry, or if they're clearly surprising their frustration.

FICTION-FIRST PLAY

Many video games prepare players to think about the game's rules and mechanics. Game mechanics and rules are intended to simulate something that the video game can't do and are a work-around for a limitation of the medium of the game.

This is a game about conversation. A human mind, or a table full of human minds, do not have as many limitations as a video game. There are things we can figure out using our own judgment.

When a player describes an action, do not consult the rules to see if it is permitted. Instead, judge the action by how the world works, not by what the rules allow. Then, decide how to resolve it. Base the difficulty of the action on how likely it would be for an ordinary person to succeed at it in real life. Don't choose an arbitrary difficulty or a difficulty with the intent of making a more challenging scene. Be consistent. If a similar action succeeded earlier, it should succeed again under similar circumstances.

This rules exist to support the fiction, not to constrain it.

When to Roll vs When Not to Roll

In following with a fiction-first style of play, we rely on the logic of the fiction to guide us. If an ordinary person could do it reliably, the character succeeds without rolling. If an action is truly impossible, no roll can make it succeed. The dice don’t override the logic of the world.

Dice are a tool for the GM to use to resolve situations where a judgment alone won't do. When an outcome is uncertain, a roll may be needed when there are meaningful consequences for failure, if there is danger, or if the action is being actively contested. Roll only when failure would matters; when it could change the situation, introduce danger, or complicate the story.

Don't call for a roll if nothing happens on a failure. Establish a consequence. Loss of time, danger approaches, etc.

Player-Skill Forward

This game relies on the players’ skill, judgment, and creativity rather than on character powers or mechanical bonuses. Players should rely on their own intelligence, wisdom, charisma, luck, and creativity.

We don’t roll to perceive things in a room; we discover what’s there by describing how we explore it. We don’t roll to influence others with speech; we persuade NPCs by making clear arguments, offering what they need, and responding to their objections. We don’t roll to solve obstacles; obstacles are problems for the players to solve using their own wits and creativity.

Player-skill-forward play keeps the game grounded and immersive. It encourages players to think like their characters and engage directly with the fiction instead of relying on mechanics to do the thinking for them.

GM PRINCIPLES

• Test empathy, not power
• Play to find out what happens
• Prepare the world, not the story or the outcome
• Challenge the characters, not the players
• Present danger honestly and clearly
• Stay neutral
• Let consequences follow
• The world is neither hostile nor friendly until the players act
• NPCs have motives, not alignments
• Use rolls only when needed
• Reward player creativity
• Respect player agency
• Roll dice openly
• Protect immersion; guide a distracted table back the fiction

PLAYER PRINCIPLES

• Characters must suit the tone and the setting
• Treat characters like people, not obstacles
• Act through the fiction, not the character sheet
• Be proactive. Seek goals
• Make your intent clear
• Embrace consequences
• Collaborate, don’t compete
• Solve problems with your wits, not your stats
• Stay curious
• Explore, investigate, and engage with the world the GM presents
• Don't exploit weaknesses in the mechanics or rules
• Put your phones away
• No pausing the movie to talk about the movie. Stay in the moment; save the meta for later

MATERIALS

Pencil, paper, and six-sided dice. Optional: miniatures (minis), a 6" grid, tokens to represent light, hope, or other narrative resources.

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Download: Full Rulebook PDF version 0.9

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