Torchbearer (TB) is like a board game without a board. It's a RPG dungeon survival simulator. You are not playing heroes but rather, something less than heroic. From TB 'The Life': "The Life Adventurer is a dirty word. You’re a scoundrel, a villain, a wastrel, a vagabond, a criminal, a sword-for-hire, a cutthroat. Respectable people belong to guilds, the church or are born into nobility. Or barring all that, they’re salt of the earth and till the land for the rest of us." "Your problem is that you’re none of that. You’re a third child or worse. You can’t get into a guild—too many apprentices already. You’re sure as hell not nobility—even if you were, your older brothers and sisters have soaked up the inheritance. The temples will take you, but they have so many acolytes, they hand you kit and a holy sign and send you right out the door again: Get out there and preach the word and find something nice for the Immortals." "And if you ever entertained romantic notions of homesteading, think again. You’d end up little more than a slave to a wealthy noble." "So there’s naught for you but to make your own way. There’s a certain freedom to it, but it’s a hard life. Cash flows out of your hands as easily as the blood from your wounds. But at least it’s your life." "And if you’re lucky, smart and stubborn, you might come out on top. There’s a lot of lost loot out there for the finding. And salvage law is mercifully generous. You find it, it’s yours to spend, sell or keep." So that should set the tone. Rob's campaign is sweeping and epic with broad heroic strokes, while TB is about spoiled rations, soaked torches, broken backpacks, ruined campfires, injury, sickness, character flaws, and death. Mechanics TB is very complicated and it takes about 3 sessions or so to comfortable with the basics. There are procedures for handling missing players, delivering the prologue, end of session rewards, town business, inventory management (Is that flask on the top or bottom of your backpack?), etc ... The Dice The game logic is D6 based. All dice are six sided. There are two main abilities and skills based upon those. Abilities and skills are ranked by dice. A 4D scout skill means your throw 4 dice when testing the scouting skill. Test to get what you want A test will have an obstacle number, usually abbreviated OB #, and that number represents how many successes you'll need to achieve your goal. an OB 2 scout test, for example, requires 2 successes to achieve your goal. For each dice rolled 1-2-3 is a scoundrel dice, a failure, while 4-5-6 is a success! In the example above, the player would roll 4D for his scout skill and the results could be: 2- 5 - 6 -1. That's two successes! Twist or Condition? Failing a test means one of two things: the DM inserts a twist or gives the player what they want but they earn a condition! In other words, you can still achieve your goal but you (and anyone that helped you) earns a condition. Conditions are bad. They stack up against you and require you to recover from them or they persist. Condition examples include sick, exhausted, injured, hungry and thirsty, angry, afraid, dead, etc ... each of which has special rules that make adventuring more difficult for you. A twist, alternatively, will effect the entire party and could change the story dramatically. Lets say a player was testing their Dungeoneering skill and climbing down to investigate a pit - a twist could mean a trap was triggered and the entire party slides down a ramp into the pit while an ancient alarm bell is struck above them. The Grind While in the adventure phase time passes in turns. Every fourth turn the grind earns everyone in the party a condition. The grind means the longer your spend in the adventure phase the more conditions you'll have to manage. The only respite for conditions is camping - but camping brings with it calamity and risk and recovery is limited to saved checks (see below). It's about balancing greed vs mounting risk. Advancement Tests are good because every time you test an ability or skill you earn credit for passing or failing and eventually advancement for that skill or ability. To advance a 3D skill, for example, you must earn 3 passes and 2 failures (one less than current skill level) with that skill. Once you do you advance that skill by 1D. Failure is required for advancement! Traits Your character will have traits which can help or even impede you and your party - but that's good. Purposefully using a trait against yourself earns rewards called checks that are used for recovery in camp. Checks are the only way to recover from conditions during the camp phase. The only way to earn a check is to use traits against yourself! From TB on why you would ever use a trait against yourself: "This rule is key to playing this game. It’s about roleplaying. It’s about making bad decisions because that’s what your character would do. These characters are imperfect at best— and that makes them appealing. All of the great heroes have flaws: pride, hubris, fury and even incompetence. Using traits against yourself allows you to demonstrate your character’s quirks and foibles. It makes them vulnerable and, counter intuitively, it makes them more likable. Torchbearer isn’t about passing every test and winning every contest. It’s about how you change and grow throughout the struggle. This rule exemplifies that aim." Conflicts Usually tests are singular events but conflicts are involved and include many different tests wherein the entire party usually is engaged. Conflicts test many different skills and abilities and are great for advancement but the stakes are much higher! Magic The default game setting is very low fantasy - magic is very powerful but also very rare. Spell and spell effects are very interesting and powerful. Rewards TB plays out in a very structured format: adventure phase, camp phase, and town phase. At the end of each session rewards are handed out called Fate and Persona points - these work like inspiration and allow the player to change the outcome of failed tests or otherwise cheat fate! Your character's traits, beliefs, and instincts might change as well. Once facing a pack of Kobolds in the wild your character might take on the instinct to always check for Kobold tracks when underground, for example. Maybe a character begins with the belief that he is the bulwark that defends his party from creatures in the dark, but after earning the afraid condition following a conflict, could his belief in himself be shaken? Fin I hope this previews the system well. I would like to try a few sessions on an off weekend if any are interested. It's a dense but casual hobby game and not a replacement for a proper fleshed out campaign, but I think you guys might like it nonetheless.
