Primeval d6 Rough Draft

I’ve been getting more and more into what people are calling “pre-D&D” or Ancient School Roleplaying, basically something along the lines of Braunstein and Blackmoor.

If you want a primer on the details I recommend Norbert Matausch’s excellent Play Worlds Not Rules series.

I’ve seen several systems in this style, three of my favorites are:

• Landshut Rules
• Middle Earth Adventures
• Just Halberds
• Sword & Backpack

I love all of these, and have even ran a two hour one shot of Landshut in Hyboria that was a lot of fun. Like any tinkering geek I have my own way of running this style of game, which I am currently calling “Primeval d6.”

I want to put together a standalone pdf of my rules, but I wanted to type up the current working set as I think about what I would add or take away.

Character Creation

Write about 50 words describing your character. From this description pick four keywords to add to your character sheet. A keyword could be a profession, a special ability, some signature equipment, or even a membership in an organization – its anything that could help you in a conflict.

Rolling Dice

Anytime there is a conflict where the outcome is uncertain, all the involved parties roll 2d6. This is most likely just the player attempting something dangerous against the Referee, but it could also be two players or even multiple parties.

For every keyword from a participating character that could aid them in the conflict, they may add +1 for each to the result of the roll. They may also add +1 for each piece of specialized equipment, particularly helpful situational conditions, etc. But they may never go beyond +3 added to a single roll.

After everyone has rolled, if someone has a result that is at least 2 higher than anyone else – what they were trying to achieve is accomplished. If they are within 1 or equal to another roller, everyone within that range must compromise with them, with the referee having final say. And if they are 2 or more less than the highest roll, they fail in their attempt.

Note that all rolls are opposed – even if a character is scaling a mountain, the referee will roll against the player. The referee’s result in this example represents the situational conditions of the climb itself, winds that kick up, rocks that slip, etc.

Harm

All conditions in Primeval d6 are added as a keyword to a character sheet. If a player character is struck with a sword, they may have “stabbed arm” written onto their sheet. Enemies who engage them in conflict may use this keyword for +1 on their opposing roll.

Harm may be social or mental, as well. If a character is insulted perhaps they take “embarrassed” onto their character sheet that opponents may take advantage of. Or a character may find themselves magically “cursed.”

When and where harm should be applied to a character’s sheet is up to the referee. Most likely it will be an obvious result from a roll.

Death

Much like harm, death is something that should be obvious within the fiction. If the referee wishes to defer to the dice, they may ask for an opposed roll between the character and their wounds. Players add bonuses to their roll for aid and healing, and the opposing roll would add for extraneous wound conditions, poor care, infections, etc.

If the player succeeds they do not shrug off their mortal coil. If they fail they die, and a compromise may indicate healing but with additional complications.

Progression

Progression will mostly be within fiction, but optionally the referee may allow players to summarize an adventure on their character sheet, using about 25 words. From these words the player may add a new keyword to their sheet.

That’s About It

I think that is most of the system. I obviously need to play it more, add examples, and summarize a bit better but I think its mostly gameable.

Let me know what you think!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.