Racheek

2. Goals permalink

Like most new TTRPGs, Racheek was born from a specific set of requirements that were not being met by existing games and systems. Sensibly, these were chosen as the goals of this project to ensure that the end product was usable by at least one Game Master, yours truly.

• Easy to pick up. The situation in which you find yourself playing Racheek may not last very long (train ride, downtime at a conference, etc.) and so as little time as possible should be spent learning the rules.
• Quick to start. Likewise, a player shouldn't need to spend 40 minutes deciding between the different Fighter archetypes to see exactly which abilities will benefit them most. There is a time and a place for that level of granularity of character creation, and it ain't the here and now.
• Minimal resources. With one card for the rules, some paper and pens to track characters, and one six-sided die you should be able to play Racheek. Of course it is slicker if everyone has their own card and a few dice each, but we're talking the bare minimum here.
• Open ended. As a Game Master running a game of Racheek, you shouldn't feel bogged down by the (admittedly miniscule) ruleset.

4. Character Creation permalink

Character creation is one of the most important aspects of an RPG. How are you supposed to know who or what you're playing otherwise? In lots of games, character creation is an arduous process that can take hours (see D&D Session Zeros for example) and confuse even the most intelligent of people, and also Nuclear Research Engineers.

If the thought of rolling 20d6 to generate your character is overwhelming, why not try the Racheek Character Generator which will give you a ready-to-use character? Just add a quick backstory and get playing. You might be tempted to keep refreshing or rerolling to find the "perfect" character, but once you succumb and put your fate in the hands of the gods you will feel liberation beyond anything you have felt previously.

4.1 Body and Mind permalink

There are only two ability scores in Racheek, the values of which are rolled on 2d6. The abilities are called Body and Mind, and are scored on a scale of 2–12 inclusive. These can change as part of character Advancement.

The score for Body denotes whether you are Deft (low) or Strong (high), whereas Mind represents Charisma (low) or Knowledgable (high). You–or your deity of choice if rolling–make the choice about where your character sits on these scales, and adjust your gameplay to suit.

• A character with Body 3 and Mind 9 is extremely lithe and pretty smart. They will likely have better results if they choose to take the gameplay in a direction that requires investigation and sneakiness rather than smashing down doors and intimidating people.
• A character with Body 11 and Mind 5 is the stereotypical tank of the party. Middle of the road with regards to intelligence and charisma, but very strong and broad and thus finds anything requiring dexterity of movement a challenge.

This approach makes it impossible for players to "max out" their character's stats either through lucky rolls or building them up as the game progresses, as any increase in one direction naturally results in a decrease of the opposing ability.

The score for Body is also used to calculate the character's starting and maximum stamina, by adding it to a roll of 1d6.

4.2 Items and Weapons permalink

The player rolls 1d6 to find out what kind of weapon their character starts with. The options at this point are Unarmed, Basic, and Decent, and more details are discussed in the Weapons section.

A character also starts with 1d6 useful items. There is a handy d66 table on the back of the card, and reproduced below, that doubles as a way of marking inventory (just put a mark next to what you have). There's a separate area on the Character Sheet to mark additional items as they are found.

4.3 Backgrounds permalink

The player should also roll for (or choose if they’re boring) a background. This background is mostly for flavour, but will help give the character a personality without too much investment from the player. Backgrounds have an additional purpose in that a relevant background will give the character Advantage on any Attempts. For example, if a character has the “Traveler” background, they will roll with advantage when Attempting to locate or barter for accommodation. There is no prescriptive list of which skills map to each background, as the players and Game Master would be expected to resolve this on the fly during gameplay, or else decide ahead of the game.

5. Advancement permalink

This section needs a little bit of work to even out figures and have examples of quest/foe to XP

A player starts with a pool of XP which is dependent on their starting stamina. As the starting stamina goes up, the starting XP goes down. Once in game, players can earn XP by completing quests and encounters. Loosely speaking, a quest would be 50-100XP depending on complexity, and an encounter would be 3-20XP depending on severity and how well it was handled. Players can cash in their character’s stored XP, combined with a moment of reflection or meditation, to acquire Fate Rolls, which allow the player to effectively redo a roll.

Players have the option to use 200XP to change the number of an ability score by 1. Characters may also spend their XP in game as though it were currency.

6. Attempts permalink

Any action that a character wants to take in Racheek that has an element of uncertainty is an Attempt. Discretion is given again to the Game Master as to whether to ask the player to roll or not. For example, drinking a glass of water would generally be an automatic success and not worth of a roll. However, if our character is handcuffed and is attempting to drink the glass of water without being heard by a guard, then you bet they are going to roll for it.

Racheek works with a roll under/over mechanic. Attempts relating to Deft or Charisma require a roll on or over the Body or Mind ability respectively. Those relating to Strength or Knowledge require a roll on or under. So our tank example from earlier needs to roll 1–11 to succeed at breaking down the door, but has to roll 11 or 12 to succeed at quietly picking the lock.

An additional rule you can employ is that if the character rolls equal to the score the attempt was successful but uncertain. For example, they successfully broke down the door but hurt their shoulder in the process and so can only use one arm in combat for a while.

6.1 Abilities permalink

A non-exhaustive map of Abilities to Attempts is below, but go wild with your own definitions.

• Deft: Dodges, ranged attacks, sleights, stealth, etc.
• Knowledge: Recall, medical, investigation, perception, etc.
• Strength: Brute force, melee attacks, blocks, resilience, etc.
• Woo/Charisma: Charm, performance, intimidation, persuasion, etc.

6.2 Advantage (and Disadvantage) permalink

If the Game Master decrees that a character has Advantage on an Attempt, such as the opponent she is about to shoot an arrow at is distracted, then the player may add an additional die to her roll and choose the two results that give the best outcome. Similarly if the character has taken a lot of damage, he might not be able to dodge an attack as effectively, and must add an additional die taking the worst outcome.

If the Attempt relates to something that the character’s background would give proficiency in, such as a player with the “Herbalist” background mixing up a herbal remedy, then the Game Master may award Advantage to that player.

6.3 Fate Rolls permalink

A player can use a Fate Roll to re-roll any Attempt once they know the result. They must keep the result of the new roll. You cannot re-roll a re-roll, it simply cannot be done. If the roll that the player makes is taken with Advantage or Disadvantage, then the entire roll should be redone.

The number of Fate Rolls a player has can be tracked with anything to hand, whether that is peanuts, counters, or just markings on paper. They are gained by expending XP and a moment of reflection or meditation. This mechanic is solely to stop players from collecting new Fate Rolls in the middle of battle, unless they are willing to be at a disadvantage because of said meditation.

7. Combat permalink

7.1 Weapons permalink

7.2 Fighting permalink

Combat is deadly. You are not heroes, you are normal people drawn to adventure.

Attacking

Roll as many d6 as your weapon dictates (e.g. 1d6 for basic, 2d6 for decent, etc.) in an attempt to beat your target's armour rating. As many dice as beat the target (meeting the target does not beat it) deal a point of damage to the enemy stamina. Each die rolled is counted alone; do not add the results together, unless your GM tells you to...

If you find yourself making an unarmed attack, the maximum you can reach is a 2. You can style this by rolling odds vs. evens, or else flipping a coin

Rolling a 6 on any die results in a critical hit, the results of which vary depending on what type of weapon you are wielding.

• Bludgeoning:
• Magical:
• Piercing:
• Slashing:

Defending

All humanoids have a base armour rating of 0. That is, without any armour, shield, or magical protection, every hit against them will deal damage. I hope you agree this is sensible on the face of it. A character must take precautions in order to defend themselves. Different qualities of armour will provide different levels of protection (e.g. basic armour is +1, a shield is +1, etc.)

It wouldn't be an OSR-inspired game without explicitly telling you that a shield may be splintered in order to negate all incoming damage

8. Magic permalink

In Racheek, magic is completely optional, and doesn't actually appear on the original business card layout. It is handled as a Knowledge Attempt (a roll on or under the Mind ability) and the severity and impact of the spell should take into account the experience of the caster, and the conditions of casting.

In terms of saving a character from the effects of a spell, any of the standard Attempts can be used if the spell effects suit it. For example, a Charisma-based save if the spell is about instilling fear, or a Deft-based save if the spell results in something that must be dodged.

8.1 Spell Generation permalink

How you assign spells to your characters is completely up to you. One fun mechanic is for every spell to be a scroll, rune, or other item that requires possession and attunement. Likewise, giving players the option of generating a number of spells equal to their level or Mind score works just as well.

This Spell Table was created for another game called Frog Warts, but can be applied to this game without issues. For each spell you have, you need to roll 3d6 for both the Effect and the Manner. The resulting spell should include a discussion between Player and GM to understand what exactly it will do.

Most of the spells should work well together, but in the event you roll something like "Shielding Shield", feel free to reroll. Some example spells are provided below.

• Creeping Servant: A shadowy figure is spawned; their sole purpose is to attack Foes of the caster
• Healing Beam: A single beam fired at any character restores them to their maximum Hit Points
• Deceiving Cloak: The target appears to be any other person or being, and has advantage on Attempts relating to this pretence
• Terrifying Dance: The target begins a tribal dance that distracts and terrifies any who look at it
• Mutating Spear: The site where this magical spear pierces suffers horrific mutations

As with many of the best experiences with roleplaying games, the fun here comes not from the spell itself but from describing the effects of the spell. The GM recounting how the party suddenly experience an overwhelming sense of dread and claustrophobia washing over them despite no visible magic happening is a lot more impactful than saying "the wizard casts Enveloping Field".

Also I may just replace this table with the d66s from Maze Rats...

9. Foes permalink

Foes should have the same Body and Mind scoring as a player-created character.

10. Example Gameplay permalink

Dramatis Personae

• E'ron: A grumpy baker-turned-adventurer 4/2
• Spiker: A jovial ex-sailor 3/5
• Jan: From the streets 2/2
• A'Thul: Former general 5/4

Into the Castle

GM: You've all managed to sneak past the guards on the outer perimiter of the castle, up ahead of you is the wall surrounding the keep. You could make your way around to the front where the entrance is, but that area is heavilty guarded.

A'Thul: How high is the wall? Could I throw Jan up there?

Jan: Wait, what?

GM: It's about 30 ft. high, certainly doable.

Jan: Actually I have Attracting Field prepared. If I manage to get up there, I can probably bring you all along for the ride.

A'Thul: OK then, I grab Jan by the ankles and start swinging her around like a hammer.

GM: As this is a show of strength, you need to roll under your Body score of 5.

A'Thul: That's a 5!

GM: Phew. Given how close that was, it wasn't a clean throw and Jan actually dislodges some brick as she lands at the top of the wall. This has probably made some guards somewhere suspicious.

Jan: No time to lose. I need to roll under my Mind score of 2 right, because spells use Knowledge?

GM: That's right, good luck.

E'ron: We should probably all hold hands about now right?

A'Thul: Let's celebrate after dude.

Jan: No, grab ahold! I can only attract one thing so I need to see you as one big blob. And I rolled a 1.

GM: Great, and you're all now on top of the wall. But it looks like your antics have attracted the attention of the guards. Getting out might not be so easy... once you've got what you came for of course.

The Crypts

GM: Ahead of you is a long corridor with what look like the remains of human skeletons strewn across the floor. At the far end of the corridor there's a door which you can just make out given the faint lighting. It has the same symbol as you saw in the apothecary in town.

Spiker: This is it! This must be the Resting Place of Ubis. After all this time...

GM: Before you take a single step forward, the bones littering the floor start to come together of their own accord and form three full human skeletons, and they appear to be carrying swords. I rolled an even number for initiative so you guys can act first.

A'Thul: Behind me everyone! I take a swing with my Great Axe at the nearest skeleton to the party. It's a Decent weapon, so my 2d6 roll is... 4 and 3

GM: He rolls a 2. Your first strike beats him and the second is unopposed. Wow. With a hit that hard this skeleton collapses with its bones splintered. It doesn't look like it's going to be getting up again any time soon.

Spiker: I have Binding Cloak prepared which we agreed would keep anything in its touch bound together whilever I'm concious. I'm going to cast that over the skeletons. I got a 3, that's under my Mind score of 5.

GM: Good job. You seen the sparkling visible effects of the spell pull the skeletons together and keep them locked in place. The area of the spells effect does mean that you'll have to be very careful when continuing down the corridor so you don't get dragged in yourselves. In fact, we're going to need some successful Deft attempts to get through here. You all need to roll on or over your Body score.

Spiker: 5. Easy.

Jan: I got a 4, I'm through.

A'Thul: 6! I was worried there.

E'ron: Oh no, I got a 3...

GM: You other three turn back to see E'ron being dragged back towards the skeletons as though by an invisible enemy. Within a couple of seconds he is pressed against them. They don't look pleased to see him.

A'Thul: E'ron! Wait, this spell only works while Spiker is conscious. Correct?

GM: That is correct.

Spiker: Please no.

A'Thul: Just relax, this won't hurt a bit.