Our tabletop RPG aims to capture the spirit of adventure through game mechanics and design that emphasize peril, ingenuity, variety, and imagination. Players should feel challenged and engaged in stories where risks are authentic, outcomes uncertain, and smart play is rewarded.
The unfolding fiction emerges primarily from players' choices (including the referee).
Game mechanics and systems provide meaningful opportunities for players to impact the campaign through their decisions and creativity.
Consider the referee as just another player, simply with a different role.
The referee should not shoulder the responsibility for the "success of the game" more than each other player at the table.
The referee is the "artificial intelligence" of the game world, not its god.
The referee has to prepare situations, not storylines.
Episodic, modular adventure design focused on unplanned events and variety over pre-planned stories.
Flexible framework enables emergent fiction informed by players' imagination and actions.
Ingenuity, lateral thinking, and imaginative solutions are viable alternatives to combat when facing challenges.
Risk/reward systems emphasize daring, flexibility, and smart preparation over mindless hack-and-slash.
Defeat and setbacks are meaningful possibilities requiring players to take risks seriously and learn from mistakes.
Authentic jeopardy provides opportunities for resilience and growth both fictionally and mechanically.
Adventures emphasize the transformative nature of exploring the unknown over collecting rewards and power.
Travel to strange lands tests and expands heroes physically, mentally, and perspective-wise.
Encourage players to attempt any plausible tactic or solution instead of limiting to predefined options.
Referee impartially adjudicates proposed actions, rewarding clever and well-executed ideas.
Design systems embracing creative problem-solving and flexibility to try the unexpected.
Focus on characters' non-numerical abilities and fiction first, using mechanics only when needed to resolve uncertainty.
Lean into episodic, modular design for maximum replayability and surprise.
Include branching narratives that maintain player agency and involvement.
Develop engaging risk/reward systems that encourage daring and creativity.
Design meaningful consequences for poor choices rather than assured victories.
Focus advancement on breadth of capabilities over vertical power gains.
Incorporate strange lands, cultures, creatures that challenge preconceptions.
Emphasize wonder, growth, and broadened perspective from journeying into the unknown.