BEFORE WE START
Safety
Define lines that should not be crossed.
Pause or rewind the game if something
uncomfortable happens during a
session.
Always make sure everyone is
comfortable with the direction of the
story.
PLAYING THE GAME
One person plays as the game
moderator (GM), the rest as players.
GM’s Guidelines
◆ Present challenges to the group.
◆ Be a fan of the players.
◆ When in doubt, ask them questions, fill
the world with their answers.
◆ Make checks swift. Play with the
players, not against them. If it's cool,
let them try.
◆ For complex challenges, or for hinting
at trouble, use tracks.
◆ When the group’s dream or nightmare
is filled, work with the group to shift the
story to an interesting place.
Player’s Guidelines
◆ Narrate what your character does.
◆ Take risks, and make checks to know
what happens.
◆ Rely on your character’s hope, skills or
areas of knowledge to even the odds
stacked against you.
◆ Play as a group, and assist one
another when facing hopeless
situations.
◆ Give everyone a time to shine.
◆ Fill the world with your ideas, and
make the story your own.
◆ Focus on your dream, and don’t fear
your nightmare.
CHECKS
Player’s Pool
◆ Start with 1d6.
◆ If your character is skilled, or is
knowledgeable in a field that relates
to the action they are trying to
accomplish, add a d6 to your pool.
◆ Spend 1 hope for an extra d6 to give
it all you’ve got.
GM’s Pool
Start a discussion with the players to
determine the risk, and hindrances
related to what they are doing.
◆ Start with a 1d6 for a daring action.
◆ Increase to 2d6 for a desperate
action
◆ Use 3d6 for a hopeless action.
Roll
Everyone rolls their own dice pool, and
compares their highest single die to the
opposing highest single die.
The size of the player’s pool is called the
impact, while the size of the GM’s pool is
called the cost.
◆ If the player beats the GM: It’s a
success. Gain 1 hope if you didn’t
spend any.
◆ If the player ties with the GM: It’s a
success, but there’s a consequence to
your action.
◆ If the GM beats the player: It’s a
failure, and there’s a consequence to
your action.
HELP OUT
When you help out, say how you want to
help, and add a 1d6 to the pool of the
player who’s making the roll.
When assisting another character, you
share the same risks as them.
This means that both characters could
end up with hindrances, or things could
go wrong for the whole group.
 HOPES
Hope is a currency that you can use to
shift the odds back in your favor.
When making a check, spend 1 hope to
fill your heart with determination, and
add a d6 in your pool. To gain more
hope, you need to beat a check against
the GM. You also don’t generate hope
for checks where hope was used.
HINDRANCES
If you fail or tie on a check, the GM can
decide that you get a hindrance. A
hindrance is a negative fleeting aspect
attached to your character.
When making a check, the GM may
increase the risk of the roll if a
character’s hindrance affects the
circumstances in any way.To remove a
hindrance, explain how you take care of
it, and wait the appropriate amount of
time.
CHALLENGES
When the GM needs to track the effort
against an obstacle, they introduce a
new challenge track. To add a track, the
GM explains what it is about, gives it a
name, and draw a row with 3, 5, 8 or 13
boxes on an index card. The bigger the
challenge, the bigger the track. When
PCs tie or succeed a check related to a
challenge, they can mark boxes on the
challenge matching the impact of their
roll. When all the boxes of the challenge
are filled, it is resolved. The GM, and the
players then work together to decide
what that means in the story.
COUNTDOWNS
When the GM wants to force the PCs to
act quickly before things get worse, they
introduce a countdown track. When
PCs tie or fail a check related to a
countdown, the GM can marks boxes on
the countdown matching the cost of
their roll. When all the boxes of the
countdown are filled, something
horrible happens, and the situation gets
worse for everyone.
DREAMS
The group’s dream is their short-term goal.
Define the dream as a group, and pick a
player who writes it down on their character
sheet. They are now the heart of the group.
When a player succeeds or ties a check
related to the group’s dream, the GM can
offer that player to mark boxes on the
dream track matching the impact of the
roll.
NIGHTMARES
The group’s nightmare is something the
player characters dread which is in direct
opposition to their dream. Once the group’s
dream has been defined, find the
nightmare as a group, and write it down.
When a player ties or fails a check related
to group’s nightmare, the GM can mark
boxes on the nightmare track matching
the cost of the roll.
STORY SHIFT
When the group’s dream or nightmare
track is filled, there is a huge shift in the
story. The GM waits for the current scene to
be over, fast forwards in time, and narrates
how the world changes for the better or for
worse, depending on which track was filled.
The filled track gets cleared, but the other
track stays untouched. The group then
works together to define a new dream, AND
a new nightmare, based to the current
state of the story. If the dream track is the
track that got filled, all the PCs get a new
ability from their respective kits, pick a new
skill or area of knowledge, and elect a new
heart of the group.
ORACLE
When you want to know the answer to a
question, and don’t want to just decide
what the outcome is, ask the oracle in the
form of a question that can be answered by
yes or no. Roll 2d6, and sum the two
numbers together:
◆ On a 2-3: No, and…
◆ On a 4-6: No
◆ On a 7: Yes but...
◆ On a 8-10: Yes
◆ On a 11-12: Yes, and…
 DESIGNER NOTES
This next section goes over how to
customize and adapt the mechanics
found in this document to help you
design your own game Ignited by
Hopes & Dreams.
Your Game
This is your project, so you can create,
update, remove all the text and
mechanics found in this document in
any way you want. You just need to give
us attribution for our work (see the
Attribution Text section).
Content Warning
Take the time to include a content
warning section that includes the
themes present in your game. Being
transparent will go a long way to ensure
a safe playing experience for everyone
at the table.
Your Setting
Explain the setting of your game, and
what the story is mainly going to focus
on. Touch on the sort of challenges the
PCs will encounter, the factions that
inhabit the world, and the places the
player character might visit.
Your Checks
When making a check, the number of
dice in the player’s pool or GM’s pool is
determined via aspects affecting the
action, positively or negatively.
Which aspects from the character’s
kit affects a PC’s action? What
happens when a PC burns hope?
Are there other things apart from
hindrances which can increase the
risk of the GM’s pool?
Your Hopes
Characters in this game will face
perilous challenges, and they will need
to rely on their peers, and their hopes to
have a chance of succeeding at their
actions. At the beginning of the game, a
character usually starts with no hope.
Hope is awarded when the player
characters take risks, and is consumed
to give bonuses in return.
Should this be renamed? Do you
only get hope on successes? Can
you spend it to clear a hindrance?
Do you need hope to help
someone? Are there other ways to
get it back?
Your Hindrances
When characters face challenges, they
will sometimes face setbacks in the
form of hindrances. Hindrances affect
the risk of future rolls made by a
character.
Should this be renamed? How do
you get a hindrance? How do you
clear a hindrance? Does a
hindrance affect more than just the
risk of a check? Are there multiple
types of hindrances?
Your Dreams
The dream is the short term goal of the
group that everyone is aligned on, and
that is carried out by the heart of the
group. It is what binds them together,
and the main way they can change the
world around them, and get stronger.
Should this be renamed? How does
your dream progress? What
happens when it is complete?
Your Nightmares
The nightmare represents the opposing
forces creeping slowly to accomplish
the opposite of what the characters in
the group are trying to do. It is what the
characters dread, and fear could
happen.
Should this be renamed? How does
your dream progress? What
happens when it is complete?
 DESIGNING KITS
The core of this system relies on its kits.
Those act as playbooks for the players,
and highlight the types of characters
the players will portray, and also goes
over the things that make them unique
and special. Each kit is made of the
following:
Skills / Knowledge
Every kit comes with a set of skills, and
areas of knowledge that they’d be
familiar with. While each character will
be able to get more of those as the
game progresses, a starting set of 3 of
those aspects is a good starting point.
Should this be renamed? How
many options should you offer for
each kit? How many can they pick
at character creation? Are there
other ways to them to get new ones
apart from fulfilling their dream?
Abilities
Each kit has four abilities which players
can use when tackling problems in the
fiction. Usually, abilities don’t affect the
odds of success. They instead provide
new narrative liberties, boost the
impact, or reduce the cost of a roll.
Should this be renamed? How
many abilities does each kit has?
How many abilities does a
character has access to when
creating their character? Are there
other ways to them to get new ones
apart from fulfilling their dream?
When making an ability, ask yourself:
What is the name of the ability?
Does it allow for something new to
happen in the fiction? Does it give a
boost on a check’s impact? Does it
reduce the cost of a check? Does it
do both? Is there a cost to activate
it? (hope, hindrances, etc.)
E.g. When surrounded, drop a smoke
bomb and traverse unnoticed to a new
location. When you hit an object in the
hope of breaking it, get -1 cost. When
entering a restricted area alone, get +1
impact on a check.
OTHER GUIDELINES
Start with the setting. Try to find
inspiration from things you love.
Something like a movie, a TV series or a
book.
Once you’ve found a piece a media that
gets the inspiration flowing, mix it with a
second one to create a unique combo.
From there, work on adding things from
your imagination to create something
nobody has ever seen before.
Think about the core gameplay loop
that the players will experience when
playing the game.
Every mechanical aspect of your game
should reinforce this loop, and the
setting. If it doesn’t, take a moment to
see if the mechanic is required at all, or
find a way to tie it back to the game in a
rewarding way.
Remember, less is more.
This SRD is written very briefly to give
you a lot of design room. Rephrase or
expand as you see fit to make this
game your own.
Extra Mechanics
Hopes & Dreams comes with a set of
mechanics that handles numerous
aspects of gameplay.
Don’t hesitate to get rid of the stuff that
doesn’t apply to your game, then add
mechanics that you think will reinforce
your world.
Add only what is necessary, and try to
tie it with the core dice mechanic to
keep things homogeneous.
Attribution Text
This work is based on Hopes &
Dreams, product of Fari RPGs
(https://farirpgs.com/), developed
and authored by René-Pier
Deshaies-Gélinas, and licensed for
our use under the Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/).
Name: Kit:

Pronouns:

Look:

Skills & Knwl Abilities

Hopes

Hindrances Dream:

Ask A Yes/No Question To The Oracle: roll 2d6, sum the two numbers.
2-3: no, and… 4-6: no 7: yes but... 8-10: yes 11-12 yes, and…