Fail States RPG

# The Core

The narrator presents a situation. The player expresses their intended action, whether they will use an Extra, and suggests expected and better outcomes of that action. The narrator ratifies or modifies, offers worse and much worse potentials, and offers the player to roll the dice. The player can revise their intent, or roll. After a roll, the narrator describes how the player's Luck has changed the situation.

Roll two dice for Luck.

| Die roll | Result |

|---|---|

| 6-9 | as expected |

| 10+| better |

| 4-5 | worse |

| 2-3 | much worse |

Roll 2d4 by default. For each point of an ability (STRength, WITs, or CHArm), make one of your Luck dice one size bigger (2d10 maximum). You may roll and add an Extra die (d4 or larger) if you have one available. Each time you roll an Extra die, set it aside until a refresh condition is met. Refresh conditions are an aspect of the setting you play. The default refresh condition is "end scene".

# Larger than Life

Ordinary people have 0 STR, 0 WIT, 0 CHA. They roll 2d4 by default. At best, they get what they expected. More often than not, they do worse than they hoped. Some may have an Extra that sometimes allows them to do better than expected.

You are larger than life. To find each of your abilities, roll 2d6 and take the lower die for a range of 1 to 6. Remember that each point in ability makes one of your Luck dice one size bigger for rolls that invoke that ability. This means that if any ability applies to a situation you will roll at least d4+d6, and at best you could roll 2d10.

You start with two Extra dice (d4 each). They may represent special skills or equipment. The first time you roll each of them, name its nature. Thereafter it can be rolled only according to its nature. Remember that an Extra is set aside after it is rolled, until it is refreshed.

In downtime between adventures, you may gain one Extra die or make one Extra die one size bigger (max d12).

Examples of Extra dice:

- superior weapon

- superior armor

- psychic power

- special training

- special knowledge

- special relationship

# As expected?

Common sense applies. It should be expected that someone with Tremendous armament will slaughter someone unarmed in a fight, at best the unarmed person might hope to trip and escape their opponent - or do they dare the risk of trying to disarm the armored wielder of a massive halberd? Do they maybe try to talk their way out of the fight? Should it be expected that a warrior armed with a halberd might pause to parley with a harmless unarmed person?

# Combat Mini-Game

You may prefer distinct rules for combat as compared to other situations. Here they are.

Everybody has 1 Hit Die and an armor class.

| Weapons / armor | Hit Die | Armor class |

| --------------- | ------- | ----------- |

| Unarmed         | d4      | 2           |

| Light           | d6      | 3           |

| Medium          | d8      | 4           |

| Heavy           | d10     | 5           |

| Tremendous      | d12     | 6           |

When shooting or hitting someone, roll your Hit Die. If the result is greater than their armor class, remove their Hit Die; they are done. If you have an applicable Extra, you may roll that die and add it to your Hit Die or to your armor class.

# A Matter of Class

Where we have Hit Dice we can have Classes. A "hard" character has 2 Hit Dice. A "sharp" character's Extras start at d6, not d4. A "wild" character takes the higher of the two dice that are rolled for one of their Abilities. This can be reskinned to different settings (hello glaive-nano-jack).

# Parts of a Day

One use for this game is to simulate overland trekking. In this context, consider a day as consisting of parts: 3 parts in spring and fall, 2 parts in deep winter, 4 parts in high summer. In each part of the day, a character may attempt an action. The expected result of an action is moderate success, using all that part of the day. A better result would be greater success, or enabling an extra action. A worse result would be failure (using all that part of the day to fail). A much worse result would be failure that costs two parts of the day or some injury.

Examples:

TRAVEL (STR) can move about six miles in normal conditions; half that if conditions are arduous. Check WIT as well, if there is no road.

FORAGE (WIT) can find a day of food and water; half that if conditions are harsh, twice that if conditions are lush.

SEARCH (WIT) can find a place that is known to be within a six mile radius.

TRADE (CHA) can arrange for sale or purchase of goods at a fair price. Here the better result is a 20% advantage to the price, the worse result is a 20% disadvantage (or using two parts of the day to arrive at a fair price), and much worse is a 50% disadvantage (or using two parts of the day to arrive at a 20% disadvantage).

RECRUIT (CHA) can arrange for hire of companions. Here the better result is a 10% discount, the worse result is a 20% premium (or using two parts of the day to arrive at a fair price), and much worse is hostility.

# Economy

Historically gold was worth about 20 times that of silver and silver was about 12 times that of copper. All prices are in silver pennies, shillings, and £.

1 pound (£) = 20 (s)hillings

1 (s)hilling (weighs about as much as four U.S. quarters stuck together) = 12 (p)ence

1 (p)enny (weighs slightly less than a modern U.S. dime) = 4 copper (f)arthings (each weighing as much as 3 dimes)

This means a gold coin that weighs as much as a shilling is worth a pound and a copper/bronze coin that size is worth only a silver penny.  

## Lifestyle and Upkeep

A person can subsist off very little and many people do just that by earning about 3 pennies per month for a total of 3 shillings in a year. This hand to mouth existence is additionally supported by festivals and feast days where the sponsor of that event foots the bill and hands out alms to the poor.

A simple lifestyle can be obtained with 6p per month.

The cost/mo for lifestyle is how much it costs to hire one of the example people.

| Lifestyle   | Cost/mo | Max lv | Examples                                                                           |

| ----------- | ------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| Meager      | 3p      | 0      | Unskilled laborer, conscripts; Ruffians, Goblins                                   |

| Simple      | 6p      | 1      | Skilled labor, light infantry, archers; Watch, Travelers, Woodfolk                 |

| Decent      | 1s      | 2      | Specialists, heavy infantry, crossbowmen, cavalry; Dwarves, Elves, Ogres, Visitors |

| Good        | 2s      | 3      | Knights, guild leaders; Trolls                                                     |
| Rich        | 5s      | 4      | Aristocrats, rich merchants; Giants                                                |

| Wealthy     | 10s     | 9      | Barons, bishops                                                                    |

| Extravagant | 1£+     | 14     | High lords                                                                         |

 
A meager lifestyle isn’t pleasant but so long as you are largely sedentary it brings no other penalties. Beneath this level starvation is a real concern.

Most adventurers will live a Simple lifestyle at first and eventually seek to spend more freely. If you live at the level of your Status or above you gain XP equal to half the difference in the cost of your lifestyle. Your Status is either social such as shown in the examples, or by character level as shown in the max level column.

## Provisioning

| Creature               | Cost/wk | Enc (pounds) |

| ---------------------- | ------- | ----------- |

| Human (or smaller)     | 2f      | 14/wk        |

| Horse (or other large) | 6f      | 42/wk        |

| Larger than horse      | 11f     | 98/wk        |

The cost of provisioning a horse assumes available grasses to supplement fodder. Without this add an additional stone of weight and 2f per week. Beings that must eat only meat are x2 the cost.

Feeding an Ogre would cost 16f per week (8 for being large and not able to eat grass, x2 for being an obligate carnivore). Feeding a Giant or Dragon would cost 26f per week.

A mule or pack horse can carry 300 pounds in packs as a safe load at full pace (3 Moves per day). It can bear up to 500 pounds at 1 Move per day. More weight than that requires sharing the load with men, beasts or carts. Carts can only go at 2 Moves per day.

## Mounts

| Mounts  | Safe load (lb) | Cost | Upkeep/mo |

| ------- | -------------- | ---- | --------- |

| Draft   | 300            | 4s   | 1s        |

| Pack    | 300            | 5s   | 1s        |

| Riding  | 200            | 1£   | 2s        |

| Hunting | 200            | 5£   | 3s        |

| War     | 300            | 10£  | 4s        |

| Mule    | 300            | 5s   | 6p        |

| Donkey  | 200            | 3s   | 6p        |

## Arms

| Arms       | Cost (in city) | Lifestyle min | (#) Examples                                                                                                          |

| ---------- | --------------- | ------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |

| Unarmed    | 3p              | Meager        | Gambeson; dagger, rocks                                                                                               |

| Light      | 1s              | Simple        | (1) Maille shirt and/or (2) target; <br>(3) light spear or (4) arming sword, (5) short bow or (6) sling                   |

| Moderate   | 5s              | Decent        | (1) Hauberk and cap, (2) heater shield; <br>(3) hand axe, (4) heavy hammer, (5,6) spear or (7) broad sword, (8) long bow  |

| Heavy      | 15s             | Good          | (1) Haubergeon with bracers and helm; <br>two-hand (2) axe or (3) halberd, two-hand (4) sword or (5) hammer, (6) arbalest |

| Tremendous | 2£              | Rich          | (1) Full maille and closed helm; <br>tremendous (2,3) sword or (4) axe                                                    |