HalfMoon

The Tabletop RPG

By Achmed Khalil Baba-Alonso
In the Beginning: The Realm of Huria
In a time unknown to us, in a world unknown to us, there is a realm; a realm by the name of “Huria.” It is a simple
one, a standard fantasy world with beasts and magics and warriors and different races.
But its true history begins with Huria’s moon. Millenia ago, a meteor containing wild magical energy inside of it
struck the Moon, splitting it in half before striking Huria, burying itself deep within the earth. Both the Moon and
the Meteor had its effects on Huria, but more specifically, it gave birth to new races.
Along with the overly hedonistic humans, the effects of the Meteor created an entirely new species dubbed as the
“Anima,” a race of anthropomorphic animals that are dead set on leaving their mark on history, no matter how
small or large. In addition, some members of both races decided to copulate, creating a hybrid race called
“Shifters,” beings who take the appearance of humans, but can “shift” into a more bestial form for enhanced
strength, speed, magic, and any other abilities. But it didn’t stop there.
The Moon’s phases directly affect all races. After splitting the Moon, some of the Meteor’s magical “residue” was
left within it, holding it together. However, in the phase of every full moon, a “Moon Burst” occurs. The Moon
creates a burst of magical energy, driving some of the beings on Huria to become more primal, more feral, and
more vicious, creating monsters out of humans, Anima, and Shifters alike.
And life went on, with humans and beasts and monsters.
What is HalfMoon?
HalfMoon is a tabletop roleplaying game suitable for four or more players, with one of them being the gamemaster,
addressed as the “Celestial Body,” and the other players being characters that they’ll create.
The Celestial Body crafts the stories, puzzles, allies, and enemies that the players will encounter, meet, and
possibly fight. All you need is a pencil, a sheet of paper, and a few six-sided dice.
The game is more of a conversation: The Celestial Body and the players take turns describing actions and
scenarios. It is less about winning the game or beating the story, but more about working together to create one.
Making and Playing Characters
Before getting into making characters, the first thing one should understand about them is the stats for them. They
are listed as such:
 HEALTH: Exactly what it says; every character has seven unmarked pips; after marking three pips of
health, the character is in critical condition, losing one additional pip of health for every scene they are in
without seeking medical attention; once all pips are marked, the character is considered permanently dead.
 EXP: A character’s experience; has seven unmarked pips; marking all seven results in a level up.
 WEIGHT: A character’s physicality; used for moving things with muscles, surviving a poison, any sort of
athletics or acrobatics, anything involving the body and using it.
 WITS: A character’s brains; used for deciphering languages, solving math, investigating, recalling history,
understanding medicine, anything involving the mind and using it.
 WILL: A character’s emotions; used for resisting enemy control, getting a read on someone, understanding
how someone feels, noticing if someone is lying, anything emotional.
 WILD: A character’s ability to be in tune with the magic around them; used for casting any sort of magic or
Shifting.
All these stats are used for character actions. When a player states an action that their character will perform, the
Celestial Body tells them the stat used to roll for. You have a number of points to allocate: 3, 2, 2, and 1. Stat
points determine how many dice you would need to roll for that stat. The results of the dice are depended on what
you have rolled: 1-3 count as failures while 4-6 count as successes. To successfully perform an action, you must
roll enough successes to pass the Celestial Body’s challenge rating.
Then there’re the “flavor stats,” the stats used to give a character individuality.
 NAME: Your character’s name.
  JOB/CLASS: What your character works as, be it a warrior, tinkerer, wizard, hunter, etc. Describes your
character’s general skills.
 AGE: Your character’s age. All races age the same way.
 APPEARANCE: Your character’s physical looks.
And then there’re the flavor stats that not only make your character unique, but also give your character an edge or
detriment.
 CHARACTERISTICS: Five words, phrases, or quotes that describe your character’s personality and
history.
 BOONS: Three skills that your character is good at based on their personality, history, or job/class.
 BANES: Three penalties that your character is terrible at based on their personality, history or job/class.
 INVENTORY: A segment of four tools, weapons, and/or items that your character carries based on their
personality, history, or JOB/CLASS. If you wish to have one of the items do something special, discuss
with your Celestial Body on what.

You can select from one of three races: Humans, Anima, and Shifters.
 Humans are the majority race in Huria. While they seem plain and overly hedonistic, they are still
incredibly skilled. When selecting this race, whenever you make an action, you may choose to reroll a
number of dice equal to half your level, rounded up, a number of times equal to your level.
 Anima, as stated in Huria’s history, are anthropomorphic creatures, obsessed with leaving any mark on
history, anything that they’ll be remembered by. When selecting this race, add a new section in your
character sheet and label it “Ambition.” In it, write down the one thing your character wants to leave onto
this world, such as “being the best magician in the world” or “leading the Anima revolution against
 humans.” Whenever you make a roll that can lead you closer to that Ambition, you gain additional d6 equal
to half your level, rounded up. Along with this, add another section and label it “Form,” and write the
animal your character resembles in it, which will describe what they can and cannot do.
 Shifters are the mixed race, taking the appearance of humans in their base form, and being able to transform
into an Anima-like creature to enhance their abilities. When selecting this race, add a new section in your
character sheet and label it “Shift Form.” In it, write the animal your character takes the appearance of
whenever they “Shift.” Shifting allows you to transform into an Anima form, allowing you to swap two stats
for the duration of the scene and/or perform certain actions the Shift Form animal can do. Whenever you
make a roll, you may “Shift.” You may Shift a number of times equal to half your level, rounded up.

Once you have selected a race, described your character and their skills, and implemented your stats, you have
done it: You have successfully created your character.
The Celestial Body’s Guide to Making and Running a Game
As stated before, the duty of the Celestial Body is to craft a story for the characters to play around in, but also
working with them to make that story memorable and entertaining.
The story of your campaign does not need to be needlessly planned out nor does it need to be all entirely
improvised. Find a good balance between the two: Plan out the basic structure of the session, play through it, and
whatever seems interesting or cool from the improvised moments that you and the players have done, you write
that down somewhere and include the consequences or effects for a later session.
Any action performed by any player character (that isn’t incredibly simple to do, such as opening a door) requires
them to roll the dice, based on one of their stats that would make the most sense. For them to successfully perform
that action, they must roll a number of successes higher than the challenge rating.
Challenge Rating Difficulty # of Successes Needed
Simple 1
Medium 2
Troublesome 3
Difficult 4
Grim 5
Legendary 6

There’s also some dice rolling involved in combat, but that will be mentioned in a bit.

Combat, Health, and Experience

Of course, no fantasy related thing is complete without any baddies and monsters to fight.
All enemies follow the same main stats as the players: HEALTH, WEIGHT, WITS, WILL, and WILD. Though
these can be more fluid and adjustable depending on the type of enemy.
Combat starts off with rolling for turn order, rolling for WITS, which goes in descending order based on number
of successes made. If two or characters have the same number of successes, then the character with the higher
WITS stats goes first.
Attacks are divided into three categories:
 PHYSICAL: Up close and personal; roll for player’s WEIGHT against an enemy’s WILL
 RANGED: From a distance; roll for player’s WITS against an enemy’s WILL
 MAGICAL: For the arcane folk; roll for player’s WILD against an enemy’s WILL
Make attacks that make sense to what your character can do. It wouldn’t make sense for a boxer to suddenly cast
magic.
Whenever an attack is made, both the player and the Celestial Body roll the dice. Every success made by the
attacker is, well, a landed attack, and every success made by the defender is a block. Damage is dealt by the
number of attacks landed subtracted by the number of blocks made. If the number of blocks is higher than the
number of attacks, then the action itself is considered a MISFIRE, and the attacker takes the damage instead, now
being blocks subtracted by landed attacks.
For example, I, as a player with 3 WITS, roll three dice to make a ranged attack, getting two successes and landing
two attacks. The Celestial Body defends as an enemy with 4 WILL and rolls four dice, but he only manages to roll
one success and blocks one attack. That enemy takes one damage to their health. However, had that enemy rolled
four successes, I would’ve MISFIRED and taken three damage to my health as punishment.
After every successful battle, all characters that are still alive and kicking by then gain one experience point,
marking down one pip on their EXPERIENCE. Experience is also gained by completing certain acts or quests in
the campaign.
After marking all seven pips of experience, that character levels up (after erasing all the pips to make room for
another level). When that happens, you as a player can select from one of the following boons:
 +1 to any stat
 +1 to HEALTH (usable up to a number of times equal to your starting WEIGHT + your starting WILL
divided by two, rounded down)
 Gain an additional party member (usable once, counts as a separate character that can be played both at the
same time or swapped between the two)
 Gain a new item for your INVENTORY
 Gain a new JOB/CLASS
 Gain a new BOON/BANE (usable up to twice for each segment)
 Change a CHARACTERISTIC (should be used sparingly, usually with character growth or change)
 Retire your character (usable only after they have leveled up five times; keeps the character safe as a side
character that the Celestial Body can use; usually ends up as an ally from the sidelines)