The other day I did a play test of my little FKR-inspired RPG rule system that makes away with traditional health points. Having a light system without health is not in itself unusual, and I've played the system with my gaming group in one-shot horror, intrigue and cop investigations etc.
I hadn't tried the traditional dungeon delve before though. Dungeon delving is (to me) so heavily associated with D&D/OSR type of rules, that it was interesting to see how my system would hold up.
The rules being tested
Before, a quick summary of my system. It's called Plot Armor (you can download t for free on Itch if you are interested):
- In FKR (Frei Kriegsspiel Renaissance)-type play, most outcomes are resolved by Referee common sense and adjudication.
- PCs have Plot Armor, that represents luck, health etc all at once. They 'pay plot armor' by drawing from a small personal stack of 6 cards, one of which is the 'consequence card' If they draw that card they are 'out of plot armor' and face a 'serious consequence' - what that it is context dependent, depending on the style of game you are playing. If they have one card left in the stack, it's reshuffled (it's also reshuffled if they draw the consequence). This means they never know exactly how much plot armor they have left (if the consequence card is next).
- PCs have "Approaches" rather than stats, written like "Strongly, because I'm built like and ox", or "Flamboyantly, because I'm a showman at heart".
- For randomness, d6 dice pools rolled by GM and Player. Extra dice on each side depends on situation, how well their Approach fits etc. Highest single dice wins. If it was a dangerous/consequential roll, loser may have to pay Plot Armor. On a tie, a mix of outcomes happen, and both sides pay Plot Armor (most Referee things have 0 Plot Armor, so they are made irrelevant immediately on a loss).
- A Player can introduce a "Plot Twist" - establish a new detail about the world (if the Referee agrees) by paying a Plot Armor, risking a Consequence (normally the opposite Plot Twist coming into play).
This is of course a lot more abstract than your average D&D/OSR style game. The dungeon was a home brew thing. I set it up with a deliberately deadly expectation: When PCs arrive to the entrance, there's a merchant there selling all stuff they'd ever need (including burial rites). If a PC dies, a new adventurer is just showing up and can join the group.
Into the dungeon
Plot Armor has an online random character generator, so I just pre-generated a bunch of fantasy ones with a random spread of realistic, dark and humorous tone, printed them out and let my players pick what they liked. My three players started as a Witch with a heart of gold, a Inquisitor with a strong sense of justice, and a Cowardly squire sent there because his master couldn't be bothered. A good start!
For a Dungeon delve, you need some sort of economy, so I borrowed the equipment lists/costs from Questing Beast's Knave (which I've also played a lot, even with this dungeon adventure) and randomized how much money they got based on what type of archetype they were (inquisitor and squire made sense to get a bit more starting cash than the witch in this world). They shopped some equipment, everyone got a weapon of their liking and the squire got some armor.
I also grabbed some magic from Knave - "magical rune stones" that PC could buy or start with. The list of 100 random spells in Knave is are great, they are usually not outright damage dealers but spells you have to use creatively to improve your chances.
Then the PCs went into the dark, found a coffin. Used the crowbar which they bought to open it - no need to roll, that's what the crow bar was for. They got some minor trinkets and got greedy ..
First warm-up trap
The wisdom from OSR comes into play here - you need to describe what you do and not rely on dice rolls. My players were pretty cavalier with walking into places and didn't spend much time on looking for traps - so they were hit by them.
Next coffin they pried open had a trap - a knockout gas. For this I let everyone roll against me (each trying with a suitable Approach, like Quickly, Carefully or Cowardly to motivate why their character would not be in range of the gas. The inquisitor won their roll against me, while the squire and witch failed their roll and had to pay Plot Armor (by drawing a card). The witch drew the Consequnce card on the first draw!
This lead to the squire getting a headache (he failed, but not a serious consequence), while the witch collapsed to the ground. The inquisitor, who reacted quicklly enough to cover their face, could drag the others. The witch had to sit out the aftermath of them looting the chest of some goodies. When you 'resolve the consequence' (in this case, the witch coming to again), you can expand your character somehow. For example, the witch could learn from their mistakes and get a new Approach "Careful". In this case, the witch and I decided they'd just get some extra Luck (a small boon that they can spend to add a dice to their pool in a roll).
First blood
They pushed on and came to a barred door. Without doing much extra preparation, they started lifting the bar. Since they are not looking for a trap, they are not finding it.
This is marked as a deadly trap, and in a D&D-style game, it would mean to roll a save. For this game, I just declared the possible Consequence was death. They all again rolled against me (since all stood together) to avoid the deadly hammer swinging down from the ceiling. Again the witch failed, and drew the consequence card on their first draw again! Squished witch.
After bringing the corpse of the witch back to the entrance for burial, the player got a new character showing up - an 'alchemist liking explosions'. Promising! We established he had a small set of powders and liquids. Rather than specifying exactly, I decided that I'd randomly decide if he had what he wanted in the moment.
Back into the black - combat!
Behind the deadly trap door was another room with three bigger sarcophagi. An NPC monster warned about opening those (there is no roll to 'sense intent', it comes down to me playing the NPC in a creepy way and the PCs drawing their conclusions). In the end, the PCs wanted to explore. The inquisitor (with a die help from the alchemist) "Subtly" pushed two of the sarcophagi together so they couldn't open easily, without disturbing whatever was inside. They then opened the last one ... predictably triggering a monster.
This was a really bad monster - a sort of magic-robot-mummy thing that couldn't feel pain and was swiping at them with large claws. How does combat works in a abstract system like this? Theater of the mind is the thing, and there is no need for initiative - every dice roll is already a contested one, where the monster tries to inflict a "Consequence" on you, while the PCs try to inflict a "Consequence" on the monster (by killing it). I gave the monster 2 Plot Armor (3 cards, one of which is different) and drew from it as the Players used flail and explosive powder to try to wear it down. Despite both winning their contests, the monster didn't suffer a full consequence (didn't draw the consequence card), and the Players decided they needed to cut their losses before their luck ran out.
Enter the Plot Twist
From before, the Inquisitor had a magical spell that forced metallic things to become strongly magnetic and stick together. They now wanted to use a Plot twist to establish a new world fact - the sarcophagi were of metal (I'd not specified this before).
This is great thinking, so I approved - but if they failed the Plot twist, they would mess it up so the other sarcophagi also opened ... The Inquisitor paid a Plot Armor - and since they didn't draw the conseqence card, the Plot Twist happened, and the sarcophagi were actually metal! Next they used the spell to slam the sarcophagi together and trapping the monster against the wall so they could get away. A great use of creative thinking.
Meanwhile the squire (who really played their "Cowardly" approach) had snuck ahead ...
That's where we stopped for the night. I collected feedback from the group.
Feedback and Conclusions
Players were overall positive. The dungeon has a mystery underlying it, so that helps keep up interest. Game-mechanics wise, drawing the Consequence card will in some situations equal hitting negative HP in D&D (or failing enough saves), without tracking or knowing the exact numbers in between. It certainly felt deadly and still not arbitrary - since consequences are announced before rolls, and the final outcome is in the end down to luck and not just the Referee saying so. Similar to OD&D, surviving becomes as much Player skill (taking your time to examine, and use the environment to your advantage) rather than dice rolls.
One question that came up is what effect armor actually has in a system like this (it didn't end up to matter for the fight since the monster never hit). The answer here is that it adjusts the Consequence - if you have a shield, the Consequence would be you losing the shield rather than getting your intestines ripped out, for example.
The players really liked the Approaches - they both have a mechanical effect as well as hint at how you play the game. Those really make for a fun experience (at least for players willing to go with it).
Another comment was that since you only compare the highest rolled numbers, the amount of dice you roll feels less consequential (if you roll four 5s and the Referee rolls one 5, it's still a draw). This is a matter of 'feel'. Plot Armor has an optional rule where you compare the number of highest-rolled dice, I'll try that next time to see if it works or just slows things down.
How does this compare to playing Knave straight up? It's interesting - on one hand you get less hand-holding as a Referee with an abstract system like this (it offloads the players and puts more onus on Referee creativity which is certainly up to individual taste). On the other hand, it almost feels more deadly and scary since you don't know when your luck will run out - without the PCs having any numbers to tick down, it becomes less gamey and ever closer to a dark, co-told story. That monster never actually hit them - but from its description, the PCs strongly suspected that that if it did, it would be bad, and that was enough for them to trap it rather than try to go the distance.
We will return to the dungeon in the future to see how it goes, but this first play test in a fantasy dungeon delve went well, I think.
TLDR; We play-tested a OSR-style Dungeon delve with an FKR-inspired rules-light system without regular HP. Players liked it, Referee liked it. Will try again.
