Dragons Dark
A downloadable game
Dragons Dark (Now updated to version 2) is a quick-to-start and easy-to-learn tabletop RP with no real stats and only uses 3d6. No longer do you have to cobble together a rough one-shot when players don't turn up. The system has one foot in the OSR and one foot in the micro-rpg philosophies. The entire system fits on 1 page of 8.5 x 11 paper, including an Adventurer Record sheet on the back page. Also included is the original versions of the system.
This system is free to play. Feel free to share and adapt this to your needs. Please send any feedback to @BlackSandsGames on Twitter
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In v2 of this system, it suggests your Current Health starts at 1. Is this a typo?
Hey, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. So looking at this again, the intent was that you only reduce your Current Health when your Stress Die rolls equal to or lower than your Current Health value. So you would have a 1-in-6 change of being hurt when doing especially risky actions at level 1. As your Max Health goes up, it's relatively easier to take damage the higher it currently is, but as you take damage, the chance of being injured decreases. Hope that helps to clarify things
Thanks for responding! Soooo… at level 1 that’s a 1-in-6 of instant death. I just wanted to check this was intentional.
Yes, this was part of the more OSR-leaning vibes, trying to make danger feel dangerous. And it's not for any action, just ones which would require a stress die to be rolled, such as combat, or perhaps leaping across a gaping spike-pit? A roll for say, trying to find a secret door, probably wouldn't require a stress die, though if a character wanted to increase their chances of success, they could choose to roll their stress die, and by rushing they might not notice the trap they might have otherwise avoided, even on a failure but with care.
One way to tone down the lethality could be to sub out death for unconsciousness? Or possibly giving combat oriented characters a bonus 1 max HP to start? Definitely makes me want to go back into this with some "new" eyes
My own feeling is that this has the makings of a really nice ‘all in one’ system, especially if paired with a simple, novel ‘notional’ dungeon generator (something which leans into the abstraction). Anyway, good luck if you plan to do more with it! I’ll certainly be interested.