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 as 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.
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 build-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.
ALTERNATIVE 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).
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
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.
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.
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
