Doing Stuff
1
Contents
Doing Stuff 3
The ABCs of Adventuring 4
Health 5
Class 6
Race 6
Violence 7
Magic 8
Ritual Generator 9
Advancement 10
Adventuring 11
Credits
Everything by Chris Bissette
Cover illustration from the Pulp Magazine Archive
Taken from the Public Domain
Anyone may publish free or commercial material based upon
and/or declaring compatibility with “A Dragon Game” without
express written permission from the publisher, Loot The Room, as
long as they adhere to the following terms:
If your product declares compatibility with A Dragon Game you
must state the following in your legal text and on any websites
from which a commercial product is sold: “[product name] is an
independent production by [publisher name] and is not affiliated
with Loot The Room.”
Loot The Room takes no responsibility for any legal claims against
your product.
The mechanics and concepts of “A Dragon Game” may be reused
freely.
The text of “A Dragon Game” may not be used verbatim.
2
Doing Stuff
When you want to do something and failure would be interesting
or risky you roll dice. If failure wouldn’t be interesting or risky,
you just do it.
To do things, roll under the relevant stat on a d20. If you roll
exactly your stat you do it really well.
If you’re particularly well positioned to do the thing well, roll
with Advantage: roll two dice and take the best result. If things
are going poorly for you and it’s going to be harder than normal,
Disadvantage works the same way but you take the worst result.
3
The ABCs of adventuring
You have three stats that dictate how you interact with the world.
Roll 3d6 in order to generate them.
Agility: Dodge things, tumble & climb, make ranged attacks, run.
Brawn: Hit things, lift and push, make melee attacks, resist.
Cunning: Spot things, sneak and deceive, wield magic, hide.
4
Health
Roll 1d6 and add half your Brawn score (rounded down) to
determine your starting health. This is also your maximum health
unless you improve it when you advance a level.
Rest somewhere safe for the night to recover 1d6 health.
If you reach 0 health for any reason, roll 1d6 to find out what
happens.
1: You die
2-3: You’re unconscious and bleeding out. You die in 1d6 rounds.
4-5: You’re unconscious but stable. You wake on 1 hit point in 1d6
hours.
6: You’re still standing and can function as normal, but every time
you take damage you roll again.
If you take additional damage while you’re unconscious, you die.
5
Class
You’re an adventurer.
Race
No.
6
Violence
You’re made of meat and when people poke holes in you you
bleed and die. If you’re going to fight you have to be prepared for
it to be to the death, and you should be sure you’re going to win
before you draw your blade.
When you attack something, pick which stat you’re using. Unless
you can come up with a good reason why it should be different, use
Agility for ranged attacks, Brawn for melee attacks, and Cunning
if there’s magic or trickery involved.
To hit, roll under the relevant stat on a d20. Deal the result of your roll
as damage. If you roll exactly your stat your enemy is temporarily
stunned and you get to make another attack immediately. If you
roll over your stat, you miss.
When an enemy attacks you, say how you try to evade it and roll
under the relevant stat. Take the difference between your roll and
your stat as damage. If you roll over your stat, take the result of
your roll as damage. If you roll exactly your stat you don’t take
any damage and can make a free attack against the enemy.
Roll morale for enemies when they reach half health to see if they
stay and fight or try to flee.
7
Magic
All characters can learn magic, but it comes at a cost.
To learn a Ritual, roll on the Ritual Generator or choose something
from another game. Then roll 1d6 and reduce either your maximum
health or one of your stats by that amount permanently. Once you
have decided to learn a Ritual you can’t change your mind - you
have to roll and pay the price.
You can start with as many Rituals as you dare to learn. If you
overextend yourself and your health or any stat reaches 0, make a
new character.
New Rituals must be discovered in play. When you discover a
new Ritual and try to learn it, roll 1d6 and reduce your maximum
health or one of your stats by that amount permanently. Then roll
under your Cunning on a d20. If the roll succeeds you learn the
Ritual. If it fails, that Ritual is forever lost to you - you can never
learn it.
To perform a Ritual, roll under your Cunning on a d20. If you
succeed the Ritual takes effect. If you roll your Cunning score
exactly it either lasts twice as long, or is twice as effective (your
choice). If you roll over your Cunning score, the Ritual fails. Roll on
your favourite Mishap or Wild Magic table, adding the difference
between your failed roll and your Cunning score to your roll.
If a Ritual deals damage, use the same rules as detailed in the
Violence section.
There are three kinds of Ritual: Words, Sigils, and Ceremonies.
Words take no time to cast, occur instantly, and fade as soon as
they have take effect.
Sigils take a minute to draw, can be triggered at will or when a
certain condition is met, and their effects last for ten minutes for
each experience level of the caster.
Ceremonies take an hour or more to perform, occur as soon as the
ceremony is complete, and their effects last for one day for each
experience level of the caster.
8
Ritual Generator
Rituals are made up of three parts - the Ritual Type and two words
that are combined to create the Ritual’s effect. Interpret your spells
as you see fit and put them to creative use. You’ve paid the price
to learn them; now they work for you.
1d3 Ritual Type
1. Word
2. Sigil
3. Ceremony
1d20 word 1 1d20 word 2
1. Limerent 1. Death
2. Entropic 2. Life
3. Corrupting 3. Love
4. Shifting 4. Hate
5. Rotting 5. Light
6. Preserved 6. Darkness
7. Violating 7. Silence
8. Desecrating 8. Noise
9. Summoning 9. Violence
10. Sloughing 10. Peace
11. Rambling 11. Bears
12. Creating 12. Abominations
13. Imbibing 13. Flesh
14. Glimmering 14. Blood
15. Evading 15. Ooze
16. Wandering 16. Flight
17. Concealing 17. Alarm
18. Revealing 18. Stone
19. Lingering 19. Grief
20. Combusting 20. Hatred
9
Advancement
Characters start at 1st level. When it makes sense for your characters
to get better, increase your level by 1 and then either increase your
maximum health by 1d6 permanently or try to improve your stats.
If you try to improve your stats, roll 2d20 against each one in turn.
If both dice roll under the stat, increase it by 1.
If only one die rolls over or under the stat, nothing happens.
If both dice roll over the stat, lower it by one.
For each die that rolls the stat exactly, increase your maximum
health by 1d6.
Stats can’t be increased past 18.
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Adventuring
Use this game with your favourite adventure game modules and
see what happens.
To convert monsters, double their hit dice and treat them as d10s.
If you want to treat AC as damage reduction that will probably
work, or at least won’t break anything. Try to give monsters
something interesting to do that isn’t just a basic attack, because
rolling to see whether you take damage each turn is boring.
Use whatever system of timekeeping you prefer. By default use a
10 second combat round and a 10 minute exploration turn. Check
for encounters/wandering monsters once per turn using whatever
you favourite method for that is.
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