RUINOUS is an ashcan ultralight system based on my earlier project, Ruins & Rogues. I’ll be updating this page every so often as I come up with new ideas for the game.
Character Creation
Choose one of the following kits. For flavor, feel free to replace “sword” with “knife” or “bow” with “gun” or anything like that.
- Sword & Shield (6 max HP): Block to negate the damage of an attack.
- Sword & Bow (4 max HP): Shoot a target from a reasonable distance.
- Sword & Spear (6 max HP): Strike a target that moves into your reach (as a free attack, even if it’s not your turn).
- Sword & Wand (4 max HP): Cast a spell. (Decide what sort of magic you know during character creation.)
When you use your kit ability, the GM rolls a d6: on a 1-3, you cannot use the ability again until you take a good long rest. (This roll also determines the potency of spells: 4-6 is potent and 1-3 is impotent.)
Rolling Dice
Only the GM rolls dice. Whenever the GM is uncertain, the GM rolls a d6; the higher the result, the better the outcome for the PCs.
If the result seems unlikely, the GM may roll a second d6 and take the new result if it seems more likely. The GM may not roll a third d6.
Typically, all you need to know is that a 1-3 is bad and a 4-6 is good, but you might break it down further:
- Very bad
- Bad
- Mostly bad
- Mostly good
- Good
- Very good
Combat
Each round, first each enemy gets a turn, then each player. On your turn, you can move a reasonable distance and take one action. Exception: Surprised enemies do not go first.
No dice are rolled in combat. Weak attacks deal 1 damage, normal attacks deal 2 damage, and strong attacks deal 3 damage. Attacks against especially vulnerable targets deal double their usual damage.
Since damage is static and the odds may be stacked against you, you should be clever with your items and your environment. If it isn't outright deadly, a trap or other environmental hazard deals 2 (weak), 4 (normal), or 6 (strong) damage.
Damage and Recovery
When you take damage, you lose that much HP. If you run out of HP, you die.
A good long rest restores you to your maximum HP. Up to twice per day, you can take a short rest to regain up to half your maximum HP.
Monsters
Monster statblocks look like this: "Name. HP, weapon (attacks x damage tags)."
For example: "Dragon. 32 HP, claws (2x3) or fire breath (6 heavy blast)." 2x3 means the dragon can make two claw attacks per action that deal 3 damage each; attack tags are explained below.
Monsters have HP as follows:
- Easy: 2, 4, or 6 HP
- Medium: 8, 10, or 12 HP
- Hard: 16, 24, or 32 HP
Here are some attack tags:
- Blast: The attack strikes all targets within whatever area of effect the GM deems reasonable.
- Body: The attack strikes all targets that the attacker moves into or otherwise touches on its turn.
- Heavy: The attack costs two actions: one to ready the attack and one to attack next turn.
- Stun: The target takes 1 damage if it moves and 1 damage if it acts on its next turn.