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Chainsaw Hobbit
2013-03-12, 09:24 PM
An idea for a roleplaying game that came to me while I was out taking a walk. It would use a slimmed down version of the Apocalypse World engine (http://rpggeek.com/rpgsystem/17185/apocalypse-world-engine), and would have a dark fantasy theme.

The setting is a forest where reality is thin. Though it is only a few square miles across, the space within is warped and stretched. There are dozens of locations that take up the same physical space, the layout is always shifting, and time is oddly disjointed. Much like the TARDIS, it is much larger on the inside. The forest is filled with broken ruines, wandering tormented souls, and buried secrets. It is also home to terrifying fae beings (http://ultimatejosha.blogspot.ca/2013/01/trope-fair-folk.html).

The characters take on the roles of relatively poorly equipped treasure hunters, caravan guards, or fugitives who find themselves in the forest, and have to survive. They might posses skill with arms or minor magics, but they are still earthbound humans.

Characters are defined by skills (which work like in most other systems), relationships to other characters (which have a mechanical effect), knacks (spells and special abilities), and thresholds for pain, exhaustion, and madness.

As characters do stuff, they accumulate pain, exhaustion, and madness - usually in increments of 1, 2, or 3. When the amount reaches their threshold (usually around 5), they are killed, incapacitated, or driven mad, respectively.

Monsters have three statistics: pain, madness, and damage threshold. Everything else about them is fluff that affects the narrative.

When a character fights a monster, they make a standard 2d6 roll. They then suffer madness and pain equal to the values associated with the monster. On a 7 or higher, they deal the monster one point of damage. On a 10 or higher, they can choose two of the following ...
- They suffer no pain.
- They suffer no madness.
- They deal an additional point of damage.
Weapons, training, and circumstances affect the roll.

Whenever a character does something strenuous, they suffer one point of exhaustion.

Pain, exhaustion, and madness are reduced by resting.

LordErebus12
2013-03-12, 09:29 PM
references to Ravenloft abound.