DUHEM: A 13th-century RPG combining deep tactical combat with semantic dread.[Free 47-Page Quickstart]
Hello,
I’ve spent the last year engineering a tabletop RPG that bridges the gap between deep, tactical combat and heavy, narrative-driven lethality. It’s called DUHEM, and I’ve just released the fully playable v4.1 Quickstart for free.
I wanted to build a system where horror isn't about fighting monsters that drop from the sky. Instead, the dread comes from the Khora—an indifferent, completely unexplained physical phenomenon, much like a black hole, that is leaking into our world. It doesn't just warp matter; it creates semantic horror by destroying the world's metanarratives. Because of this phenomenon, the whispered superstitions of the 13th century—witches, vampires, and seers—become grotesque realities. The tone leans heavily into the eerie, uncanny dread of isolated boundary towns where matter itself simply stops refusing to change.
Here is how the engine actually works at the table:
- Three-Question Defence: Armor doesn't make you harder to hit; it dictates how you fail. Combat asks three separate questions: Guard (Did it land?), Absorption (How much did it cost?), and Poise (Are you still standing?).
- The Terminal Cap: There is no massive HP bloat. Once a character's Poise breaks, an Execution window opens. However, a strict "Terminal Cap" prevents both unkillable boss exploits and instant player death cascades.
- Action Economy & Retreating: Standing your ground is a choice. Fleeing via Disengage is tactically viable, forcing players to constantly weigh aggressive strikes against defensive posturing to manage their fading stamina.
- The Khora: There is no objectively "true" magic school, and the physics of the Khora are never explained. Harnessing this phenomenon requires Overdraw; you pay for power directly with your own body (spending Hit Dice and taking permanent Exhaustion).
The Setting: DUHEM is set in the real, gritty 1240s Mediterranean, but this Quickstart drops you directly into the burnt hillsides and isolated frontiers of Occitania. The world is highly competent and indifferent to the players. The true mundane threats are debt, disease, and the local magistrate's ledger.
I am an independent designer. The 47 pages of mechanics, the 13th-century lore, the world-building, and the introductory adventure (The Mill at the Edge) were written, engineered, and laid out entirely by me. If you are interested in tight systemic design and hard mechanics, I’d be honored if you judged the engine itself.
Get Involved: The Quickstart is completely free (or Pay-What-You-Want) and contains everything you need for your first 3-5 sessions, including 3 ready-to-play characters and a complete scenario.
- Download the Quickstart here: [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/578584/DUHEM--Quickstart?affiliate_id=5223820]
- Join the Playtest Discord: We are actively gathering table reports, fixing edge cases, and building the community before our upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Come say hi and break my system: [https://discord.gg/pamEzrzXJ]
"Hi everyone, and thank you for taking the time to read the document and leaving such blunt, honest feedback. I hear you loud and clear, and I want to address the very valid points you’ve raised.
First, regarding the "AI prose" and the heavy, convoluted language: You are absolutely right. English is not my first language, and the TTRPG scene in my country is very small, so finding native editors or local playtesters is nearly impossible. Since this is a passion project I only work on in my spare time, I leaned heavily on LLMs to translate my ideas and polish the English text. Clearly, that backfired. It resulted in a bloated, overly philosophical tone that obscured the actual game and made it frustrating to read. I apologize for that.
As for the constant comparisons to D&D 5e—that simply stems from my own inexperience in the hobby. I only know about 4 or 5 systems in total, and 5e is the only one I feel truly fluent in. I used it as a baseline to explain my mechanics, but I see now that it comes across as defensive and wastes valuable page count. You're completely right: the game should stand on its own merits without needing to bash another system.
To give a bit of context, this project didn't even start as a TTRPG. At one point, it was going to be a graphic novel. But because I love interactivity and roleplaying, it slowly morphed into a tabletop game. As I kept tinkering with it, the mechanics actually clicked into something genuinely tangible and playable.
However, when it came time to cram years of lore, concepts, and rules into a single "Quickstart" document, my inexperience as a layout designer showed. I struggled to organize it, which led to the disjointed page order, the weird noun/verb mix-ups you pointed out, and the philosophical rants completely overshadowing the rules.
Tinkering with mechanics in a vacuum is an endless loop, and I knew I had hit a point where I desperately needed outside eyes. Your harsh but fair critiques are exactly the reality check I needed. I know the document requires a massive amount of cleanup, and I will keep refining and rewriting it (in a much more normal, human, and player-friendly voice) in my free time."