BAND TOGETHER TO DEFEND AGAINST But you have allies beside you.
The dangers of the
1800
OTHERWORLDLY THREATS: Creatures of the
night wreak havoc upon human lives. Some of it
sporadic and unprovoked, some of it well overdue.
► Roll d20 for a Person of Interest
1 August Bennett, Traveling salesperson
LO-FI FANTASY RPG • RILEY MARTINEZ 2 Horace Jones, Superstitious grave digger
3 Odette Thibaut, Maid, gossiper
4 Granville Moore, Discredited chemist
5 Mateo Gil, Fisherman, cursed by the sea
6 Sister, a nun who does not speak
7 Fredrick Carter, Gentleman, Doppelganger
8 Byron Edwards, Struggling author
9 Minerva, Reclusive hunter and trapper
10 Edgar King, Coal Miner, can see spirits
11 Kindred, Venerated Vampire Lord
12 Thomas LaVelle, Photographer, inventor
13 Ximena Moreno, Factory worker
14 Luther Morgan, Occult investigator
15 Maddison Ward, Plague doctor
16 Genevieve Kaplan, Mortician, widower
17 Issac Adebayo, Sailor, Merfolk
18 Sophia Watson, Lycanthropy inflicted
19 Samuel Lee, Busker, Seer
20 Lafayette King, Studies necromancy
► Roll d12 for an Adventure
1. The corpse of a demon was found in a
church. The local clergy are keeping it
secret until they discover how it entered.
2. A town’s water supply has been touched by
the Cosmic, imparting strange visions onto
those who drink it.
3. An order of werewolf hunters forcefully
takes charge of a town after a string of
disappearances.
4. Everyone in a graveyard is brought back to
life and brings old family secrets with them
as they return to town.
5. Mechanical devices from another time are
being dragged up from a small local well.
6. Everlasting Day descends upon a
community and citizens haven’t been able
to sleep since.
24XX rules made by Jason Tocci under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0) • Art by Beeple (Mike Winkelmann)
supernatural can make strange bedfellows, but a
helping hand can provide a small light in the
darkest hour of those initiated in the occult.
► Roll d20 for a Location
1 Bramblewick, town receding into a swamp
2 The Blackburn Family Estate
3 Drifthaven, an eerily quiet fishing village
4 A crossroads in a windswept moor
5 The Atticus Hall Plantation
6 A recently Unearthed catacomb
7 An unmarked graveyard
8 A sun-bleached desert
9 Snake church in the mountains
10 Cornfield filled with strange circles
11 Small roadside attraction
12 Brooklake, a sleepy town with a secret
13 Sacred Hearts, medical ward
14 The Ascendant, a coastline shipwreck
15 Charwick, an abandoned town
16 Castle Helmsfield
17 Gloaming Woods, misty home of the fae
18 An abandoned saw mill in the woods
19 The crowded streets of London
20 Lowridge, a young frontier town
7. You receive a concerning letter from an old
friend about their inheritance and
something about a family curse.
8. Locals report small rhythmic tremors and
beating heart sounds coming from the
ground before the weather shifts.
9. Travelers tell tales of people getting lost in
a ghost town that seems to disappear into
the mists at the stroke of midnight
10. The citizens of a mining town suspect
something unholy has been unearthed when
all the miners start acting differently.
11. In a certain location, two moons can be
seen in the sky which seem to be causing
an uptick in lycanthorpic transformations.
12. A group of kobolds mobilizes a regiment to
search for a stolen artifact.
RULES
PLAY: Players describe what their characters
do. The game moderator (GM) advises when an
action is impossible, requires extra steps,
demands a cost, or presents an avoidable risk.
Players only roll to avoid risks.
ROLLING: Roll a d6 skill die — higher with a
relevant skill, or d4 if hindered by injury or
circumstances. If helped by circumstances, roll
an extra d6; if helped by an ally, they roll their
skill die and share the risk. Take the highest die.
1–2 Disaster. Suffer the full risk. GM decides if
you succeed at all. If risking death, you die.
3–4 Setback. A lesser consequence or partial
success. If risking death, you’re maimed.
5+ Success. The higher the roll, the better.
If success can’t get you what you want (you
make the shot, but it’s bulletproof!), you’ll at
least get useful info or set up an advantage.
LOAD: Carry as much as makes sense, but more
than one bulky item may hinder you at times.
ADVANCEMENT: After a job, increase a skill
(none ➡d8 ➡d10 ➡d12) and gain 1 silver (☽).
DEFENSE: Say how one of your items breaks to
turn a hit into a brief hindrance. Broken gear is
useless until repaired.
HARM: Medical/repair expenses cost☽1. If
killed, make a new character to be introduced
ASAP. Favor inclusion over realism.
RUNNING THE GAME: Lead the group in setting
lines not to cross in play. Fast-forward, pause, or
rewind/redo scenes for pacing and safety, and
invite players to do likewise. Present dilemmas
and problems you don’t know how to solve. Move
the spotlight to give everyone time to shine. Test
periodically for bad luck (e.g., run out of ammo,
or into guards) — roll d6 to check for (1–2)
trouble now or (3–4) signs of trouble. Offer
rulings to cover gaps in rules; double back during
a break to revise unsatisfying rulings as a group.
CHARACTERS
► Choose your character’s specialty.
NOBLE: Skilled in Fencing (d8) and Riding (d8).
Take an expensive piece of jewelry, a family
crest, and either a rifle (bulky) or riding horse.
HUNTER: Skilled in Tracking (d8) and Trapping
(d8). Take a crossbow (bulky) or a hunting dog.
CLERGY: Skilled in Medicine (d8) and Blessings
(d8). Take some incense and a censer.
BANDIT: Skilled in Forgery (d8) and either Hand-
to-hand (d8) or Shooting (d8). Take either a
sword or pistol.
SCHOLAR: Skilled in Academia (d8) and either
Occultism (d8), Arcane (d8) or Alchemy (d8).
Take a writing set and a blank journal.
GRAVE-ROBBER: Skilled in Sneaking (d8) and
Vandalism (d8). Take a change of clothes and a
shovel.
► Choose your character’s origin.
HORROR: Invent two traits, like lycanthropy, fae
magic, wings, or undead.
COSMIC: You have a form to better blend in
when walking among people. Take a Veil (looks
human, breaks harmlessly for defense.)
Increase 1 skill.
HUMAN: Apply 3 skill increases (from no skill
➡d8 ➡d10 ➡d12). You can take new skills
and/or increase skills you already have.
► Choose or invent skills (if prompted by origin).
Academia, Alchemy, Arcane, Blessings, Climbing,
Fencing, Forgery, Hand-to-Hand, Legerdemain,
Marksmanship, Medicine, Occultism, Riding,
Sneaking, Tracking, Trapping, Vandalism.
For inventing skills, there’s no limit to what you
can choose. However, an avoidance of social
skills (Reading People, Diplomacy, etc.) is
recommended. Let arguments and play out
naturally and resolve within the fiction.
GEAR
► Take camping provisions and ☽2. Most
individual items cost ☽1 each. Ignore small
transactions (e.g., crowbar, knife, meal).
ARMOR: Leather (breaks once for defense),
shield (break up to 2x, bulky), Suit of Armor (☽2,
break up to 3x, bulky).
TOOLS: Medical tools (scalpels, needle and
suture, bandages), Repair Kit, Grappling Hook,
Writing Set, Censer, Animals (Riding Horses,
Hunting Dogs), A Holy Symbol
WEAPONS: Sword, Axe, Mace, Polearm (bulky),
Crossbow (bulky), Longbow, Pistol, Rifle (bulky),
Blunderbuss (bulky).
CURSES
A curse can be a large breadth of things. The
terrible history of a land, the looming dread of a
shared secret, the anger of a scorn being
beyond comprehension. However, they come in
a common form for combating the supernatural
called a cursed object.
Cursed Objects have three main components; A
Source, a Price, and an Effect. The source is
what originally made the curse, anything from
the divine to a human feeling very strong
emotions can be a source. A price is what must
be done in order to use the object. An effect is
what the curse does.
To be the source of a cursed object yourself,
you roll a d6. No study or preparation will sway
the hands of fate. A 1-2 result means that the
GM/another player will choose the price and
effect of the cursed object. A 3-4 result means
you get to choose the price or effect. A 5+ result
means you get to choose both. Describe the
process by which you curse this object.
DETAILS
► Invent or roll for cursed object details.
CURSED OBJECTS
1 One half of a set of wedding bands
2 A saber marked with dried blood
3 A rifle pilfered from a battlefield
4 The memoir of a forgotten author
5 A fang hanging from a necklace
6 Soil from a barren land
7 A misaligned compass
8 A vial of wren’s breath
SOURCE
1 A remorseful spirit
2 A grief stricken individual
3 The God you fear most
4 The whims of a Fae Court
5 A childhood companion
6 The object itself, awoken
7 The will of the forest animals
8 A celestial body
PRICE
1 A drop of blood for every use
2 Two silver pieces from a demon
3 A contract with a vampire lord
4 A promise to destroy the Source
5 A whispered secret for every use
6 Knowing how you will perish
7 Your most precious memory
8 The ability to fall in love
EFFECT
1 Divine the direction of your heart’s desire
2 Create a warding circle of magic
3 Shoot a blast of searing hot light
4 Heal a fresh wound
5 Attract an evil force to the wielder
6 Detach your senses from your body
7 To see through the eyes of animals
8 The right to break a single demonic contract