Heroic Tales

A rules-lite fantasy role playing game

v1.22
 Characters The Challenge Roll
HAVE A ROLE When trying something risky or challenging, build a dice pool
The role is for narrative as well as helping determine what of D6 based on the situation and the character's skill.
they are skilled at. Select a fantasy role like Fighter, Cleric,
CHECK DICE
Magic User, and Rogue.
Disadvantage: 1d6. Normal: 2d6. Advantage: 3d6. You'll never
roll more than 3 check dice.
ARE SKILLED AT 4 THINGS
Describe four things the character is skilled at. One starts at 2 SKILL DICE
points and the others 1 point. Some Options: Acrobatics • When a skill applies, add 1d6 to the pool for each skill point,
Alchemy • Animal Knowledge • Blacksmith • Brawling • which could be 0. Special abilities, and items may also add
Charismatic • Climbing • Crafting • Deception • Diplomacy • skill dice to the pool. You'll never roll more than 6 skill dice.
Dungeoneering • Engineering • Gambling • Intimidation •
Languages • Magic • Medicine • Melee • Navigation • Important
Negotiating • Picking Locks • Performer • Reading People • Skill Dice should be a different size and/or color
Religion • Repair • Riding • Shooting • Sleight of Hand • Stamina from check dice.
• Stealth • Streetwise • Survival • Throwing • Tracking • Traps
SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Roll all dice together. The roll succeeds if any of the Check
ARE A SPECIES
dice land on a 5+, or if any of the Skill dice is a 6. The number
Different species have different abilities. Select one of the
of 5ʼs or 6ʼs rolled may be used to determine the outcome.
following species for your character and note their ability, or
Failing forward is an option. A failed roll can be a success at a
make up your own if none of these fit your concept.
cost.
➸ Dwarf: Dungeoneer - Attempting to find the path through a
SAVES
dungeon or cave system is with advantage and +1 Skill die.
The Facilitator may request a Save roll in order to prevent
Size: Medium.
something from happening to the character. For example, to
➸ Elf: Elven Archer - All bow attacks are with advantage and avoid taking damage from a fall. A Save roll works just like a
+1 Skill die. Size: Medium. normal roll.

➸ Giantkin: Magic Resistance - They roll with advantage when CRITS

saving against magical effects. Being huge, they roll all Success = More than ½ the rolled dice are 6ʼs.
agility checks with disadvantage. Size: Huge. Failure = Failure and more than ½ the rolled dice are 1ʼs.

➸ Halfling: Agile - Agility type rolls are with advantage and

+1 Skill die. Size: Small.
Magic
To cast spells, take the Magic skill (or Religion for clerics).
➸ Human: Adaptive - 1 extra thing they are good at. Size: Characters start with cast points equal to their Magic or
Medium. Religion skill points + 4. To cast, describe the magic feat they
are trying to perform and the GM will assign an effort level
➸ Lizardman: Tough Skin - +1 Health. Size: Large.
based on difficulty.
➸ Wolfkind: Sensitive Smell and Hearing - Rolls search checks
Easy Moderate Hard Very Hard
with advantage and +1 Skill die. Size: Large.
Effort 2 3 4 5
HAVE HEALTH Roll to cast the spell. After a successful cast, roll 1d6. Reduce
Health is the number of hits a character can take before being your Cast Points by 1 if the result is less than the Effort. Cannot
injured. Small characters have 4, medium 5, large 6, and huge cast spells which require more effort than current cast points.
8. Huge characters always roll agility checks at disadvantage. Characters will need to study or pray to their deity to replenish
their cast points.
HAVE GEAR
Give the character a weapon of their choice and typical gear
for their role.
Items
Rare items may have powers which add additional skill dice to
CAN ADVANCE the pool when applicable. The number of dice added depends
When it seems appropriate, add 1 to an existing skill or take a on how advanced the item is.
new skill starting with 1 point. Skills max out at 3 points. Basic Advanced Next Level
Skill Die 1 2 3

Heroic Tales - v1.22 2022 Squidhead Games CC BY-SA v4.0 Page 1

 Combat Create An Adventure
Roll to fight. See The Challenge Roll. The enemy takes hits Build an adventure hook by rolling a d6 on each of the tables.
equal to # successes. The character takes hits equal to the The Facilitator will then lead a discussion to learn more about
enemy's Attack rating - # successes. the adventure. Ask a lot of who, what, where, when, how and
why questions to get some ideas flowing. The end result will be
INJURIES
a paragraph which explains the adventure.
Characters take an injury and are KOʼd when taking hits equal
Your Patron... Has Given You A Quest To...
to health - injuries. The character dies when taking their 3rd
King Phineas XI Slay the Dragon of Derkip
untreated injury.
Lord Barstow Close the portal to Vertog
The Thievesʼ Guild Recover the Fire Ruby
HEALING
Mage Atheon Deliver the Pinnacle Stone
A short rest will reset the character's hits to 0 and revive a KOʼd
The Huntersʼ Guild Investigate the Ruins of Chʼal
character. Clerics can cast a 3 Effort healing spell to remove 1 The Council Chase off the bandits
injury once a day per character. It takes 2 days of downtime to
So Adventure Forth Into... But Beware...
remove 1 injury. Healed injuries turn into celebrated scars. The Wildwood of Fenn The Soulless Ones
The Underdark The Cultist of Vic
ARMOR
Banner Highlands The Hell Titans
When hit and wearing armor, roll 1d6. If the result is >= the The Fenlʼnass Mountains The Giants
target, then all hits are avoided. Small characters include a The Tanglewood The Witch Heiress
Skill Die in the armor check and may not wear Next Level The Caves of Aether The Boneless Horror
armor. Next Level armor imposes disadvantage on all agility
checks. Roll-A-Dungeon
Roll for Room or Corridor (1d6): 1-2 Corridor, 3-6 Room
Basic Advanced Next Level
Corridor
Target 5+ 4+ 3+
1. Length (1d6): 1-4 Short, 5-6 Long
SHIELDS 2. End (1d6): 1-3 Door, 4-5 R or L Turn, 6 T Intersection
Can be used to block all hits and cannot be used with 2 handed Room
weapons. Roll 1d3 when taking to determine the number of 1. Size (1d6): 1-2 Small, 3-4 Medium, 5-6 Large
blocks it provides. Must be repaired when reduced to 0 blocks. 2. Shape (1d6): 1 Oval, 2 Circle, 3 Square, 4 Rectangle, 5
Hexagon, 6 Irregular Polygon
ENEMIES
Exits
Stay down when KOʼd. May have special abilities, items, magic.
3. Exits (1d6): 1 None, 2-3 One, 4-5 Two, 6 Three
Trivial Low Medium High Heroic 4. For each Exit (1d6): 1-2 Corridor, 3-5 Door, 6 Stairs.
Health 2 4 6 8 10+
Theme The Room
Attack 1 1-2 2 3 4 Content Adjective

Bestiary
Mini Bestiary H = Health A = Attack Rating
S = Shield W = Weapon Debris
Cave-In
Graffiti
Mosaics
Rotting Food
Statue
Perilous
Low
Petrified
Haunted
Empty
Savage
Animated Statue [H: 6, A: 2, W: Strike]: Blunt weapons have advantage, sharp Tracks Vines Lichen Blocked Ghastly Defended
weapons have disadvantage. Pit Fungus Writing Wild Oozing Mystical
Fire Giant [H: 10, A: 3, W: Strike/Firebolt]: Immune to fire attacks, including Glass Furniture Whispers Grim Moldy Inaccessible
Firebolt. Save vs. 1 Hit of fire damage when Fire Giant hits. Chains Corpses Columns Flooded Shadowy Protected
Giant Snake [H: 8, A: 3, W: Bite]
Goat Demon [H: 4, A: 2, S: 3, W: Scimitar]
Alter Slime Stalactites Dark Sinking Abandoned
Gnoll [H: 4, A: 2, W: Sword] Gate Smoke Symbols Rough Sweltering Wide
Lizardman [H: 4, A: 2, S: 2, W: Spear] Feces Stains Webs Cold Torrential Foul
Skeleton [H: 2, A: 1, W: Sword]: Ranged weapons have disadvantage. When Alcove Vibrations Map Broken Jagged Dead
KOʼd, a successful save will revive. Book Roots Pool Small Thundering Ruined
Troll [H: 10, A: 3, W: Club]: Regenerates 1 Hit at the start of each round. Must Shaft Scratches Bones Exposed Misty Desolate
be burned or chopped to bits immediately after being KOʼd. 5. Ask the Oracle yes/no questions to learn Oracle
Zombie [H: 2, A: 1, W: Claw/Bite] Roll Answer
more about the area including traps,
threat level, and secret doors. What you 1 No, and
License & Acknowledgements roll depends on how likely the answer 2 No
You may play this game as-is or customize it to suit your needs. will be “yes”. 3 No, but
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Icons From: https://game-icons.net Likely: Roll 2d6 and take the highest 4 Yes, but
Based on the FlexD6 core mechanic: https://squidhead-games.itch.io/flexd6 Even: Roll 1d6 5 Yes
Thanks to my fellow creators on the NSR discord server! Unlikely: Roll 2d6 and take the lowest 6 Yes, and
Heroic Tales - v1.22 2022 Squidhead Games CC BY-SA v4.0 Page 2
 Optional Rules
Looking to add some more crunch to your game? Pick and RANGED WEAPON AMMO
choose from the following optional rules to make it as crunchy Ranged weapons start with 6 ammo points. At the end of
as you like. combat or use, roll 1d6. On a 1-2, reduce the ammo points by 1.
ITEM DURABILITY When you reach 0 ammo points, youʼre out of ammo. Adjust
All items have a life cycle. After using an item, or after combat, the initial point value based on the weapon.
roll 1d6 for the item. On a 1, reduce the durability by 1. Items FRIENDLY FIRE
with 0 durability must be repaired or replaced. Firing a ranged weapon into a group with friendlies can be
Fragile Weak Sturdy Hardy Tough risky. If the shot misses, roll 1d6. If the result is less than or
Durability 2 4 6 8 10 equal to the number of friendlies, then a random friendly is
hit.
ITEM ABILITIES
Rare items can have a passive ability which is always in effect FACILITATOR ROLLS
and an active ability that requires a roll to activate. To see if an The Facilitator can roll for the NPCs by following the exact
items active ability activates, roll 1d6 when using it. The ability same rules as the PCs. A couple minor changes are required:
activates when the item die lands on a 5 or 6. An item can do
Damage
many things including:
Hits equal the number of successes. The PCs do not take
➸ Moving Skill Pips: Pips (dots on the d6) can be moved damage when their attack fails to meet the enemies attack
between Skill dice. When moving a pip, the Skill die can rating.
never be reduced to less than 1 or increased to more than
Enemies/NPCs
6.
Instead of an Attack Rating, the enemies have Key Skills. The
➸ Adding Skill Pips: Add pips to the Skill die. It is Key Skill value is used for their attacks. The Key Skills value
recommended to only allow adding 1 pip. may also be used as a suggestion for other enemy skills. For
example, a typical mook likely wouldnʼt be a good negotiator,
Example: Ring of Strength
but their leader may have the Negotiating skill which could be
Passive: +1 pip to a Skill die when strength is important.
the same or better than their Key Skills value.
Example: Lightning Staff Trivial Low Medium High Heroic
Active: All enemies in close range must save vs. 2 hits. Health 2 4 6 8 10+
GRIT Key Skills 1 2 2 3 3+
Characters start each session with 3 Grit points. As long as they
GROUP INITIATIVE
have Grit points remaining, they can take advantage on any
Players roll a 2d6 test unless they have a skill or ability which
roll, but lose 1 Grit if the roll succeeds.
may give them advantage. Those who pass go before all
enemies, those who fail go after. Enemies may impose
disadvantage on initiative rolls at the Facilitators discretion.
You can roll initiative each round or once for the entire combat
session. Rolling for each round will slow the game down,
however, it will allow for some interesting tactical choices.

Tips
ARMOR/SHIELDS MAGIC
The game is pretty deadly so consider at least Basic armor for The magic system is wide open and relies on the creativity of
each character and a shield for extra protection. Add enemies the players. If you need more of a framework or inspiration,
armor die to the PCs roll to reduce the number of rolls. For a see the Heroic Tales Character Expansion.
more challenging game, add 1 to the armor target value. MISSING RULES
PLAYER-FACING vs. FACILITATOR ROLLS Apply the “rule of cool” when you canʼt find a rule to cover a
Player-facing rolls will speed up the game, especially during situation. If it will be cool, then let it go! When unsure of what
combat. Player-facing rolls also work well for solo games. a roll would be, simply roll 2d6 and add a skill die if the
Facilitator rolls allow for more flexibility and tends to add characters role or background applies. Also, you can always
more crunch. Both are fun. It comes down to what your use advantage or disadvantage to change up the odds.
preferences are.
Heroic Tales - v1.22 2022 Squidhead Games CC BY-SA v4.0 Page 3