towards a medieval "brown stone" game

Note: this is not an earnest attempt to recreate any game that was played in the Twin Cities in 1971. It is just something that I threw together based on one explanation I have seen of the (poor quality and contradictory) evidence of how combat in that game worked.

These are incomplete, I basically just wrote and edited until I ran out of steam but I think it'd be enough to start playing. 

I didn't include any Referee's guidance for timekeeping or reactions or things like that, just do your best I guess.

Rules Brief for Players

The game is about a companies of adventurers going on expeditions into strange mazes and uncanny places to find their secrets and treasures. These expeditions are dangerous; adventurers may well die. If they survive, however, their fame and power will grow...

Advice:

• If you don't know what to do, ask questions.
• Tell the others what you want to do.
• The Referee won't lie to you, but they may not tell you everything.
• There aren't rules for everything. If you make a good play, you won't need to roll any dice.
• If you fight, someone will get hurt. It could very well be you.

Adventurers usually go on expedition in large companies, to have the advantage of numbers. Each player can have a few different characters in the company.

hazarding a tale

rule

Whenever a rogue is in dire enough straights, they can hazard a tale appropriate to their current peril. You may not hazard the same tale that someone else has already proved for themselves. After naming your tale, throw two dice:

• A throw of 2,7 or 12 proves the tale is true. It becomes a permanent part of your character (retroactively if necessary) and they escape the peril.
• A throw of 3 or 11 calls out your character for a liar and they'll just have to deal with the situation like everyone else.
• Otherwise, the tale remains to be proven; record the throw next to the tale. The peril remains

While a tale remains to be proven, the Referee can occasionally put it to the test by rolling again; the tale is proven when the original throw is thrown again, but a throw of 7 before then calls it out for a lie.

why?

I have a great love for the way the Far Traveler and the Zouave inject a checkered past into a character. If I could find a fault with those classes it's that I'd like to have that sort of thing continue throughout their adventuring career. I wrote the mechanic for specifically roguish characters (it's what I'd use for the core mechanic of a rogue class), but in a more generally picaresque game it may make sense to have it open to all characters.

A list of example tall tales follows. It's not meant to be exhaustive, players are certainly welcome to make up new tales, but this should do to prime the pump and all these options would I think be interesting at the table: