Macabre - Brutalist, Minimalist Adventure Game
I'm looking at the Moldvay list of monsters and they're pretty cool so maybe I'll rewrite the bestiary and format it to fit Macabre.
Below, how the sausage is made. A devlog, if I may be so self-indulgent.
COVER
I really like minimalism and wanted something with a lot of BLACK cause it makes the lil' guys really stick out, like they're somewhere they really shouldn't be. Dungeons, like caves, are not for People to be in. They got funky helmets and one has a pistol, as I think Cosmic really likes drawing 17th century adventurers and I'm thinking about running the game in a Western version of the French Pyrennées (cause fuck running the American Frontier, it's too loaded with horrible history that has nothing to do with my own lived experience or basic geographic knowledge). I've been asked if I could include the front cover on the PDF for other projects so here goes, technically makes the PDF 2 pages instead of one and with all that black I'd still recommend people only print page 2 if they want to print it.
LAYOUT
Jost is a really neat, clear, easy-to-read google docs font I found reading a short game Sigve posted in NSR the other day. It looked really cool so that was prompted me to write another lil' game in response. In the past I've went with a (immature) punk approach of "fuck this, arial 12, to the point, no explanations required" but I keep talking about why accessibility is important so I figured maybe I can put in some effort and try to make the short games I write more readable. So 3-columns, landscape, one page, sexy font, justified text.
SAFETY & PREP
Super basic stuff, lines & veils, mixed in with general expectation of play to be discussed (although I do think in this case the mechanics should easily sell you on whether or not this is your type of game), plus quick "this is what the Ref does" cause the latter part only says how to run, not how to prepare. Tried keeping it to the point and clear, although I am aware the lack of guidance can still hinder accessibility, I think I'm not a great teacher as my prose is much more meandering than it should be for that purpose. Just go read Maze Rats or the Hack n' Slash courtney campbell blog posts if you don't know how to run an adventure game, there's good advice there.
CHARACTERS
I do 3-word characters usually. Stuff like "Curious Snail Knight" or "Mendicant Emerald Monk". 30 words is a good size for a more involved player that has a detailed character in their head, without being more than at-the-table stuff; ie: you can read your 30 words to the other players and GM and they won't get bored.
You're first level OD&D adventurers (veterans, fighting-men)! So, 1d6+1 hp. Trick is, you don't get more. No levels, no class, no XP. If I didn't tell you it was OD&D, you probably wouldn't think it's missing. I think it's not missing even if we call it OD&D. Adventures and materialist, diegetic rewards are enough for my players and they're enough for me. You get quick equipment, I gave numbers for stuff that the equipment list details like length of rope or number of torches, because I like people counting these things, it further strenghtens the psychic connection between players and the game world, or something. Like drawing a map. I like hazard dice, but I think you can have both that and some record keeping without drowning the players in homework.
EXPLORATION
Tells you that you should think about two things: encumbrance, ie: bulk and weight, as well as lighting. Sight, your senses. It's kinda gamey but again it mostly serves to ground you in the game world. It's also very much specific to dungeoneering, although I think you could make use of that in a wild west or sci fi game too. For sci-fi I'd also consider stuff like oxygen supplies or zero-g affecting descriptions of environments, navigation and movement differently. For westerns maybe some 101 on gambling or bushcraft?
ROLLING DICE
Again, OD&D. 1st level. 1-3rd level FM (fighting-men) have THAC 2 = 17. That's "you need to roll 17 on d20 to hit an armor class of 2" for the uninitiated. So roll 10+ to hit someone without significant protection, roll 17 to hit the best armor possible. Convert it all to 2d6 and you end up with, give or take, Classic Traveller range of 7+/8+/9+ etc. Same for saving throws, it ranges from 12+ to 16+, so we round it to 14/15+ and turn it into "roll 9+ on 2d6". I know rolling to hit is old news but with these odds, how few HP players get and such, I don't think whiffing will be much of an issue. You can totally give monsters their regular old-school HD values (just use d6s like 3LBB OD&D, not B/X's d8s), it's fine if players can't fight a vampire by trading blows, that's the point; it's a survival horror game. Wits are necessary cause the gambling is stacked against you. Saves suck, so avoid rolling them if you can by being smart. Fights are going to be short and awful affairs. If you're Into the Odd-pilled and hate attack rolls, here's a quick fix:
The Into the Odd Way
Characters have 10 Flesh, d6 Grit. Skip attack rolls, significant advantage means you just roll damage. D4 when attacks are impaired, armor and shield both grant 1 DR (so best you can get is armor 2), damage subtracted from Grit represents near misses, blocks, parries, dodges. Damage to flesh means you're wounded. If you take half or more of your remaining Flesh in one attack, that's critical damage (give horrible effects to monsters when they inflict that to you, by default it puts you out of action and you'll die in an hour if left unattended). If your Flesh reaches 0, you're super dead.
It's great but also makes you more akin to a 3rd level character than a 1st, which makes fighting slightly more viable and thus less horrible. Run a 1st level bar fight with knives and broken bottles involved and you'll see it's a very peculiar feel.
SACRIFICE
Shields shall be splintered is cool, "break item for defence" is cool in 24XX. So I put it in here, but also specify you can ruin your body to survive a hit and not die, and also you can betray other allies; it doesn't work on enemies cause they expect you to do this to them. You can also be heroic by taking a hit for someone else. I'm assuming high trust at the table and people being grown-up about this and talking it out, also not taking the game so seriously that it would legit hurt if one mercenary betrayed another (or, in a Cthluhu scenario, one tried to sacrifice another, literally, to save their skin) - do talk it out if needed.
Oki this was way longer than the actual game, hope you enjoy both the article and the short game (again, it's ONE PAGE and like ONE EURODOLLAR).
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