ABOUH. A Bunch Of Unlikely Heroes. Contacts. Credits. License. Artwork. Version

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1 Index ABOUH 2 Introduction 3 GM Procedure 4 Characters 5 Examples 8 A Map 9 Equipment 10 Locations 11 Opening Scene 12 The final touch 14 Adventuring 15 The Mechanics 16 Go for the Dice 17 Setup the roll 18 Roll Scales 19 Advantages 22 Keep Your Cards 23 Conflicts 24 Harm and such 26 Sorcery 28 Monsters 30 Materials 32 The Oracle 33 The End 37 1

2 ABOUH Credits ABOUH (which sounds strangely similar to about ) is a rules-light Role Playing Game using mechanics inspired mostly by the Otherkind Dice from Vincent Baker. Visit his Patreon page at: Besides the obvious credit to Vincent Baker, additional influences are from Apocalypse World (guess what, again from Vincent Baker), and Fate (from Evil Hat). Additional credit goes to Delos Adamski for inspiring part of the introductory questions with his AW Quick starts, and to Into The Odd, which inspired a lot of the tone of this adventure manual. License Released under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) You can basically release your own hack or game material even commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit and share your creation under the same license as the original. Version This is version 0.1. A Bunch Of Unlikely Heroes Contacts This is a work in progress: if something is not perfect, be patient. Write me with your feedback, you will help improve the game. If you bought the product while still in beta, you will get all the next updates for free. Mail: davide.pignedoli@gmail.com Website: Artwork The artwork in the manual is a collection of art from various artists, sometimes heavily manipulated. The artists include: Harry Clarke, Howard Pyle, Various anonymous medieval prints, and Willy Pogany. 2

3 Introduction What do you play The game is a fantasy framework that allows you to play adventures in a remote corner of an imaginary land. Part of the setting is determined during characters creation. Players have the chance to bring into the game for example certain nonhuman species like elfs, dwarfs or half-ogres. Magic or divine powers are also probably present and hinted at, again during the characters creation process. There is some inspirational material available for the GM, but the best approach to the game is to come to the table ready to do a lot of improvisation. If you re the GM, focus on the story, on the cool and crazy stuff you can make up, using the inputs from your players. A few words, then you get to start the game Material To play you are going to need: * One of you playing the GM role * At least two players for the characters, better if three or four * A bunch of 6-sided dice, preferably 4 or 5 per player * A lot of index cards, or maybe post-it (sticky notes) to write the dice outcomes * At least a black paper sheet for each player, to use as character sheet * Several paper sheets for the GM, to use to draw maps and take notes * Pens and pencils. Since the players will draw and write their own character sheets, it s good to have pens. Players will use pens that can t be erased to make the character sheet, and pencils while playing and writing temporary notes and marking scores. 3

4 GM Procedure What to do During the characters creation process, the players will define several aspects of the characters and of the setting as well. Take a blank sheet of paper, and write down everything your players say yes to (you will ask several leading questions, track down what they respond positively to). It is very important that you track everything from the start: these are important elements to inspire you during the game. The procedure To start the game, you can read the instructions in the next page and start working with the players accordingly. You draw a map, while the start sketching they characters. How to start the game as the GM After that, you ask them a series of questions about their characters: they will write down their answers and so will you. Do the same for the follow-up questions, which will provide additional details. Note that some questions give you more info about the characters, others about what their motives are, and others about the setting at large. Remember: write everything down, this is your inspiration material. The same procedure is repeated for equipment: you ask questions, they answer. Note that they might have other stuff, besides these important pieces of equipment. The ones defined here, are just the most special, most peculiar. Finally, you ask questions about locations: these are the crucial elements of your map, and the very special places the characters will explore and visit during the adventure. With this information you re going to setup the opening scene and then the adventure begins. The resolution mechanics are outlined afterwards, with some examples and material for the GM. 4

5 Characters The Inn Yes, you re all at the Inn, as in some of the most classic and in some of the most boring fantasy stories. Some of your characters might know some of the others, some don t, some maybe know another by their name or by their reputation. When you came in, all at different moments, you were all wearing a long coat or a cape, and a hood covered your head and shaded your face. So probably nobody knows you re here, yet. It s a chilly night of middle of March, and nobody looked twice at your robes. The Playbooks All the players should receive an A4 or Letter paper sheet, and fold it in the middle. Imagine opening it like a little booklet: on the front page, quickly sketch the outline of your character. Use roughly a quarter of the page for it. You should just draw what others might have seen (see the list that follows, in the next page), and remember that your body and features are mostly concealed. You can draw the shape of your character figure, and the triangular shape of the hood, and leave the face in the shadows for now. How to make the chracters The Map The Inn is in the center of a village called The Green Ford, which takes its name from the old ford over the Iron River so called because it springs over the Iron Mountains. The village is decently peaceful and wealthy, especially since the King ordered the New Bridge to be built. More traffic and traders reach now the village from the south, thanks to the new road and the bridge. GM: sketch a little map; they draw, you must draw too! Make the village not too big and the Inn not too fancy. Place the village towards the bottom of your map: the Iron River comes from the north and flows away to the west. Draw the old ford close to the village, and the new bridge nearby. The Iron Mountains take up most of the north-east of the map. Put a bunch of trees on the north-west: it s the Forest of the Thousand Souls. 5

6 Characters introduction While the players are sketching the outline of their characters, remind them to keep the appearances vague, for now. Even in their imagination, their character should have the potential to be perhaps something specific, but nothing too defined at the moment, and open to changes. Ask your players Ask your players the questions presented on the right; you can go in order, or skip some, jump ahead and go back, and so on. Tell them that if they are not what you re asking, they should remain silent and let who s saying yes to speak instead. Some rules Nobody can say yes to more than one question, at this point. If two or more players want to say yes to the same question, the players who remained silent will vote on who will actually get the yes. GM: you vote only to break ties. When everybody had said yes to one question, move to the next step: the Follow-up (next page). If a player didn t respond yes to any question, start over with the questions, asking only those that nobody answered to. A player who responds yes in this second cycle of questions, as a penalty has attracted some attention already. Appearances GM, you can tell player that you have 12 questions to ask and they should try to pick their yes in the first round, pending a penalty otherwise. Now, time to ask: 1) Is anyone taller than normal? 2) Is anyone wearing a good or rich fabric cloak or coat? 3) Is anyone stouter than normal? 4) Is anyone looking clearly like a man or clearly like a woman? 5) Is anyone looking wary? 6) Is anyone familiar with the place and picking their spot? 7) Is anyone shorter than normal? 8) Is anyone carrying a big or long bag or pack, apparently heavy? 9) Is anyone especially fluid in their movements? 10) Is anyone sizing up the room as a battlefield? 11) Is anyone clearly a foreigner? 12) Is anyone still standing at the entrance, without entering? The players should write what they said yes to, on the playbook. 6

7 Follow-up Ask some follow-up questions that will help you to determine some basic facts. You ask each question to the player who answered yes to the previous related question, and ignore those that had no answer previously. 1) To the taller: are you a human or perhaps an elf or another race? If another race, is it common in this area? Why are they in unfriendly relationship with the humans? If just human, then they re just tall. 2) To the one looking rich: are you perhaps nobility in disguise? If yes, local nobility or from afar? In any case, which is the local noble house ruling this land? 3) To the stouter: are you maybe a half-ogre or similar? If not, are you a warrior, soldier or veteran of some sort? 4) To the one clearly man or woman: are you local or from afar? What is that only men or women (the one you picked) can do in your land? 5) To the wary: are you afraid of someone/something you might find, or of someone/something that might find you? Don t tell us more than this, for now! 6) To the one familiar with the place: you were born here. Were you always here, or are you returning after a long time? 7) To the shorter: are you perhaps a dwarf or half-dwarf or similar? If yes, why are dwarfs loved by humans, but despise them in turn? If not, does being short give you an advantage maybe in your profession? 8) To the one with the bag/pack: is this something yours, a piece of gear or equipment, or is it something you plan to use especially in this location? 9) To the nimble one: are you more of a criminal, of a scout or ranger, or more of a fighter? 10) To the one sizing the room: are you a local or a foreigner? Are you on a hunt, ready to attack, or are you just defensive as an habit? 11) To the foreigner: did you come here with a purpose? Or are you one the run? Or just passing by? 12) Who are you looking for? And do you hope or do you fear to find them here? Whatever they answer, they should write it on their playbooks. 7

8 Examples Review Let s look together at what s on the playbooks so far, Every player should have a rough sketch of the character figure taking 1/4 of the page, and a few descriptive lines, about the character and perhaps the world or situation. An example One player draws a burly figure, thinking of a warrior. He promptly answers yes to your question Is anyone stouter than normal? so he writes Stout next to the drawing of his character. Then when you ask if he s an halfogre or similar, he says no, he is just a human veteran of several wars, so he adds Veteran. His playbook might look like this: Let s verify the playbooks Another example A second player has decided to play a woman character, so she answers yes to the question Is anyone looking clearly like a man or clearly like a woman? She specifies of course that her character is a woman, and that she is a animist, a sort of druid. She is from afar, from beyond the mountains, and over there only women can wield the druidic powers of animistic magic. Her playbook might looks like this: - Stout - Veteran - Woman - Animist - In my homeland beyond the mountains only women wield this kind of power 8

9 A Long Example So apparently that was not really the end of the manual. Here is a play-example from Delos Adamski, to help clarify a few mechanics, otherkind dice cards setup and so on. So, the example GM: You see before you the fortress of the Orc Lord. The land in between you and it, is strewn with the bodies of the fallen and wooden walls and spikes. There are orcish archers, eyes on you, ready to lose arrows upon your head. What do you do? Jen: I've been in this situation before; back during the war my garrison stormed a keep under a salvo of arrows. Just stick close and follow me. Once we get through that I'll bash the door open and we'll charge in. David: I hope you know what you're doing. Melissa: No worries. I can deflect some arrows with my magic. David: Great, but how is that going to keep me safe? From the great Delos Adamski GM: Alright, so you are going to try to enter the guarded fort using brute force. That sounds like it is going to be pretty hard. So for the target die we'll do You get trapped and pinned down in the field 4-5 You get to the front door but it's being held shut 6 You bash the door in The advantage die will be You gain no advantage 3-4 You gain a slight advantage 5-6 You gain a major advantage The danger die will be serious harm or damage suffered 4-5 some harm or damage suffered 6 no harm or damage suffered Also since your party is coming with you we'll need to worry about your companions. The companion die will be... 1 all in danger take serious harm 2-3 all in danger take light harm, or just one takes serious harm 4-6 none takes harm 38

10 Jen: Alright so that's 4d6 then? One for each die? GM: That's right. Jen: Do I get some sort of bonus for fighting orcs before or having this giant tower shield? GM: Totally! You get an extra die for having something useful on your character sheet, but you can only get one bonus die from your sheet. It's up to you which aspect of your character is helping this time, the bonus die will be the same regardless. Jen: Well it's something. Ok here goes. Jen rolls 5d6 getting: 3, 3, 4, 6, 6 She drops, of course, the worse die. David: Thank you. Jen: One of the 6's will go to the target. That door is going down. I'll put the other 6 into the danger die and the 3 in the advantage die. GM: Wow. You pulled that off no problem. Ok so Jen leads the charge through a salvo of arrows. Keeping her shield up and using the terrain to her advantage all of you get to the door unscathed. Jen hits the door at a full sprint, sending the wood splinters everywhere. The orcs are surprised by the speed of which you got in. Hence your slight advantage. Now the orcs are grabbing melee weapons and are starting to come at you. What do you do? Jen: That's not bad! GM: Alright, we'll drop one of the 3's since you can only use four of your six dice. Where do you want to assign them? David: Just be sure we don't get hurt! GM: It's up to Jen where the dice get put, but I think you'll be ok. Jen: Let's see... I'll put the 4 in the companion dice. That will keep everyone safe. If you feel that was too easy on the characters, well, the GM could have even assigned 2 danger dice to the situation (given the number of orcs loosing arrows). Jen then should have rolled 6d6 (5+1 for the advantage). To avoid danger to herself, she would have needed two 6s, and another for the door (the target die). Try this roll yourself. 39