This page contains an Overview of Core Mechanics and Combat Mechanics. Things are explained in more detail on other pages, which are all linked to from this page. It’s intended to be a quick introduction to the rules and how it compares to D&D.

Overall theme and expectations

Fantasy, with magic. Players start weak, but grow quickly. The game is like D&D, but not really. There are a lot of things that are different. The main focus of this game is quests and exploration; exploring the world to find more dungeons and towns, exploring dungeons for loot, and doing quests. The world is pre-defined. You can go where you want, except for session 1 where you start at a specific location with a specific plot in mind (that’s not to say that there’s no player agency; the players can still do anything they want).

Character Creation and Advancement

There are no character levels. Everyone starts and stays at “level 0”, except for their abilities, skills, and feats—each having their own XP bar that can be separately trained.

Characters are classless, meaning you are not restricted by classes. There is no need to multiclass to get cool abilities from other classes. Your “class” is determined only by the equipment you carry and the role you wish to play. In this game, you just “play however you want to play”.

Gold is very important. You use gold to train for XP to earn higher abilities, better skills, and gain feats. A trainer is required to gain XP.

Careers are randomly rolled for in session 1. These don’t mean much besides giving you a slightly head-start with abilities, skills, and gear. They also may be used for story and roleplaying purposes.

In D&D, leveling is slow. However, in Peasant’s Quest, you can basically level something up every time you return to town, provided that town has the trainers you want and you have the gold and time to spend.

Abilities

There are six abilities, all of which you have heard of. The use of each one may be slightly different from what you’re used to, though.

Physical abilities include: Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.
Mental abilities include: Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Abilities have an ability score that starts at 0 and goes to 10. This number is used as-is when determining bonuses (i.e. there is no separate ability modifier like in D&D).

In D&D, you barely get to increase your ability scores. You get, like, +1 at like level 4, then level 8, then 12… It’s so slow. In Peasants’ Quest, it’s much faster. But not only that, when you increase your ability score in Peasants’ Quest, you are directly affecting your rolls since the score itself is added to rolls. Also, Peasants’ Quest abilities go up to 10, while the highest ability-modifier bonus you can get in D&D is +5.

Skills

Most skills use a mix of two abilities. For example, stealth is half-dexterity and half-wisdom; being dexterous alone is not enough to evade detection if you are unwise.

To make a skill check, roll a die, add your ability bonus(es), and add situational advantages and disadvantages.

Roll a die. The die used is determined by your skill proficiency rank. For example, untrained skills roll a d12, while experts in a skill roll a d24.
Add your ability bonus(es). For single-ability skills, you just add your ability score. For dual-ability scores, add half of each ability score, rounded up.
- Dual-ability rounding example. (STR=3, DEX=5). Strength bonus is STR/2 = 1.5 (rounds up to 2). Dexterity bonus is DEX/2 = 2.5 (rounds up to 3). Total bonus is 2+3=5.
- Single-ability example. (WIS=5). Wisdom bonus is WIS = 5. Total bonus is 5.
Add situational advantages and disadvantages. Circumstances dictate how well you do. If something would give you a boon, it adds +2 to your result. Things that would curse you subtract 2 from your result instead.

There are no knowledge checks. You either know something or you don’t. Players know all common knowledge and most career-related knowledge. All other information must be sought out.

You can force a successful skill check by spending extra time on the task, provided that you are in a safe area and that failing the skill check has no consequence. For example, picking a lock that is simple and untrapped can be force-picked with enough time, and a room can be fully searched with enough time even if you failed the initial roll for searching.

Proficiencies

Proficiencies are measured in ranks, ranging from Untrained to Master.

The proficiency chain is the order of proficiency ranks from lowest to highest. It is:

Untrained - Novice - Apprentice - Journeyman - Expert - Master

Ability proficiencies determine what skills you can train and what feats you can learn.

Skill proficiencies determine what dice you roll for skill checks.

Feats require a certain ability or skill proficiency to learn.

Training Requirements

Training an ability requires that you see a trainer that can teach your level of training.

Training a skill or learning a feat requires that 1) you see a trainer that offers training for that skill or feat, and 2) you have the proper proficiency rank for one of the skill/feat’s main related abilities.

Dice

Weird dice are used in addition to the basic dice from D&D. This is to give much more variety in weapons and other things.

The dice chain is the order of dice from lowest to highest. When determining certain bonuses, you may roll up or down the dice chain (i.e. one link up or one link down). The dice chain is as follows:

1d2 - 1d3 - 1d4 - 1d5 - 1d6 - 1d7 - 1d8 - 1d10 - 1d12 - 1d14 - 1d16 - 1d20 - 1d24 - 1d30

Downtime

Players can do one of the following every day:

Train with a trainer
Work for money
Craft

Time

A calendar is important in this campaign.

Overview of Combat Mechanics

A calendar is used to keep track of events (as they come up) and environmental respawning. Environmental respawning includes monsters coming back to dungeons, harvested plants regrowing (for alchemy), and hunted animals repopulating (for leatherworking).

Critical hits occur when you roll the highest number on the die. When that happens, you simply add extra damage according to the die type (e.g. a 1d20 weapon adds +3).

Critical misses happen when you roll a natural 1. When that happens, melee weapons suffer one break, and ranged weapons go wild.

Weapons and armor are highly varied. There are many different unique weapons with different properties that greatly affect the amount of damage done.

There is a printer at the D&D table behind the DM, and we can print out any item on a small piece of A5 paper for your binder, so don’t worry about having to calculate anything on your own. Players are encouraged to get 6-ring A5 binders to store their papers and character sheets in.

Melee weapons can suffer breaks, and broken weapons cannot be used in combat. One break is suffered automatically during critical misses, or during reckless attacks. The number of breaks a weapon can suffer before breaking is determined by the weapon’s material (wood/stone = 1, basic metal = 2, advanced metal = 3). Breaks can be repaired using weapon repair kits, however players are encouraged to carry multiple weapons and claim weapons from defeated enemies.

A reckless attack is a melee attack where the player rolls double the dice, but the weapon suffers one break.

Ranged weapon attacks can go wild when you roll a critical miss. When this happens, randomly select a new adjacent target square (using a 1d8) and deal maximum damage for that weapon to any target on that square.

Encounters are not balanced. You are encouraged to rig situations in your favor and avoid conflicts where you don’t have the upper hand. Combat in Peasants’ Quest is neither balanced nor fair

Players can wear armor, up to seven pieces, one per armor slot.

Weapons and armor can have special properties, which change the damage roll, and how many slots it takes up.

Instead of flanking in D&D, there is crowding. You receive +2 for every ally within 5ft of your target.

Encounters are done on a square grid. Each square is 5-ft. Every other diagonal counts as 10-ft.

Jumping is measured in 5-ft (one square) increments. The amount you can long jump without rolling is determined by your Strength and Dexterity score (# squares = STR/5 + DEX/5). If you want to attempt to jump farther, you can roll a Jump check (DC = 5 × extra squares needed) determined by your jump skill with bonuses.

Your Encounter base speed is determined by your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores, ranging from 20-ft to 50-ft. =(4 + STR/5 + DEX/5 + CON/5) squares per turn.

World travel is done on a hex grid, but moving across it is kept simple. Each hex is “multiple miles” across. The distance you can move per day is measured in hexes, not miles, to keep it simple. By default, you can move 4 hexes. Subtract 1 if you are going off-road at any point. Subtract 1 if you are moving across difficult terrain (desert, swamp, mountains, etc). Add 1 if you are using a mount that’s suitable for that terrain type (e.g., horses, or camels for the desert).

The world is big and there is no world map, at least not that your characters know about. I have a map on my screen, and part of it is shown on the wall TV. I’ll provide blank maps so players can keep track of hexes.

Visibility distance varies based on where you are. If you are high up, you can see farther. If you are in an area with obscuring features (such as a deep forest with trees), you can’t see very far at all. By default, you can see about 1.5 hexes away (so you can distinguish the terrain type of the neighboring tiles). Mountains are always visible

Dungeons are big. We’ll have maps on the table TV, though.

If you have situational advantage, you roll with a bonus, while situational disadvantage has a negative bonus. The bonus amount is typically +2/-2, but may be more depending on the situation. There is no double-roll

There is no help action like in D&D. If one or more players want to help, then they can also make the check or attempt to do something that adds situational advantage (whichever makes more sense at the time).

Stealth is handled individually against individual awareness. So a party of 4 sneaking against a party of 4 would have to make 4 stealth checks and 4 awareness checks. Any awareness check that exceeds above any stealth check becomes aware of the one who is sneaking. Any awareness roll that ties with the highest stealth simply becomes suspicious and can’t be sneak-attacked.

Combat order is done by side. Player-side vs environment-side. Every player goes, and then every monster goes. Or every monster goes, then every player goes. The players most all at once, so talk with each other and plan your turn. You can interact with other players to do special combat maneuvers.

Initiative is rolled by the encounter’s leaders. If one player specifically starts an encounter (i.e. is the one who notices a creature and decides to engage or is forced to engage), then their initiative score is used to determine which side goes first.

Not everything will make sense. If something seems unrealistic, but fun, let’s just go with it.

Effort has been put in to make using weapons interesting. For one, there is a wide variety of weapons. Secondly, weapons break and can be repaired, so you won’t be stuck using the same weapon for many sessions. Third, every weapon can have modifiers that modify your damage roll or other things.

At face value, this sounds complicated. However, every weapon will fit on a single A5 sheet of paper, and we will have the printer. I can print weapon sheets off at any time.

Anything not described in this rulebook is decided on the spot.

Dice and the Dice Chain

Weird dice are used. In addition to regular dice (d6, d20, d8, etc), we will use also weird dice (d7, d24, d5).

The dice chain is this:

When an effect moves the dice downwards, move left. For example, a weapon that’s normally 1d12 might do 1d10 instead. When an effect moves the dice upwards, move right. 1d30 is the highest it can go.

Before Session 1

There is nothing the player has to do before the first session. You are encouraged to come up with a name for your character, but that’s it. Everyone will be playing a human peasant Character creation in this game is very simple. Simply show up to the first session. Show up for the first session. Everyone is starting out as a peasant.

What I told Greg

Hey, I’m thinking of starting a campaign using a different set of rules that’s not D&D or Pathfinder or even DCC. Actually, I’m thinking of making my own system. I know you said that other systems besides Pathfinder and D&D seem pointless, but would you be interested in playing regardless?

The main difference is that players would start at level 0, and everything would be more human scale (so no being Superman and killing God), and there would be no classes or leveling up. Instead, you receive gold from looting dungeons, and can spend that gold at trainers and schools to level up your abilities, skills, gain feats, and learn spells

So anyone can be a spellcaster if they want, and they can buy the spells they want to buy. Or they can be part-ninja if they want. There are no classes, just class trainers, and people can mix-and-match

Some trainers would have to be unlocked via quests, and some classes can only be found in specific towns

Speaking of towns, the map would be a well-defined hex crawl

Also, I’m thinking of having dungeons be brutal without any regard towards player level, and I’m thinking of having death work like exhaustion in Gloomhaven, where when you die, you instead lose a turn and use a health potion, or limp out of the dungeon and come back later

I don’t necessarily like the homework aspect of D&D. I’m thinking that with my campaign, I want there to be no player homework except someone can volunteer to write a session write-up (because I think session write-ups are cool, and whoever does the write-up will get a special die token for next session)

What I told Derf

There’s no classes or leveling. Anyone can play into whatever “class” they want based on what they decide to train and what equipment they carry

And it’s a human world. Everyone is starting as a peasant in ye ol’ peasant town

I’m making my own ruleset, btw. Idk if that was clear when I mentioned it briefly at D&D. I basically am trying to combine the best parts of various systems while leaving bad stuff behind

I plan on having centaurs be one of the main hostile races from one of the regions. If you want to surgically attach one of their horse butts to your body, we could plan to make that happen someday

Hmm, that would be interesting. What if the main reward from each region is an orb that turns a player into a half-animal?

What I told Brian and Katie

This is a theoretical question with NO PROMISES I’m just curious… if I started a campaign at level 0, with XP leveling, and using a different ruleset that’s not D&D or Pathfinder and has more limited races and classes and is closer to AD&D (old school D&D) would you be interested in playing? Or do you have a problem with anything I pointed out (new rules, limited races/classes, level 0, XP leveling)?

I have some more ideas, but I’m unsure if they’re good ideas or not. I think a lot of prep work would be involved, but idk, maybe it can be made easier

so, instead of XP leveling, I was thinking that there could be no levels at all. Everyone starts at level 0 and they stay at level 0 forever. The difference, though, is that they can purchase skills, feats, spells, and ability scores by training them with a trainer. Different towns/villages have different trainers, and they all cost GP. GP and XP are essentially the same concept. E.g., you can either use your GP to buy a magic weapon or level up your strength or increase your HP.

Some trainers have to be unlocked via quests. Also, I’m thinking of having dungeons be brutal with disregard for player level (so the players can go after a high-level dungeon if they want, or grind lower-level dungeons), and I’m thinking of having exhaustion work like in Gloomhaven where the characters don’t ever die (so the players can go after a high-level dungeon if they want, lol)

Also, on that note, with trainers and dungeons and whatnot, I’m thinking the world should be 100% well-defined, like on one of these

So the game would be more grindy and gritty, more down-to-earth, and less speculatively epic and less in the clouds. Idk if that makes sense

Instead of starting as an adventurer and leveling up to become gods, you start as peasants and level up to be adventurers lol

Rules Overview