The Simple d12 System

Philosophy

Simple d12 is a minimalist, setting-agnostic, abstractly realistic system. It is designed for ease of character generation and minimal player downtime. Combat is authentically fast-paced, high pressure, and lethal.

Character Generation

1. Determine a setting-appropriate background, consisting of a character’s:

   1. upbringing, including:
      • nationality
      • culture
      • social class
   2. education (formal or informal, if any)
   3. previous experience (if any)
      • e.g. military service

2. Select a vocation, specialized as appropriate to the setting. Vocations include but are by no means limited to:

   Actor, Bureaucrat, Crafter, Criminal, Doctor, Engineer, Entrepreneur, Farmer, Investigator, Merchant, Police, Politician, Priest, Scientist, Soldier, Spy

   Specialized, these could be alchemist or xenobiologist (scientist), trauma surgeon or plague doctor (doctor), swordmaster or sniper (solider), machinist or fletcher (craftsman).

3. Allocate 18 points between analytical (An), emotional (Em), and physical (Ph) aptitudes. Values are roughly interpretable as below (0 in any means death).

Value	Analytical	Emotional	Physical
1	comatose	aphasic	infirm
2	imbecilic	robotic	feeble
3	stupid	irksome	sickly
4	slow	awkward	weak
5-6	normal	normal	normal
7	clever	likable	tough
8	smart	popular	athletic
9	brilliant	enchanting	powerful
10	genius	empathic	herculean

4. Determine your character’s values, goals, appearance, etc. and describe what is apparent to others.

Taking Actions

For any action where success cannot be assumed, roll 1d12.

• +1d12 if trained in or familiar with the task, as would be appropriate for the character’s background, vocation, or from prior game experience. Optional rule: each character can specialize in one task, for which they roll 2 training dice. E.g. rapier dueling, sniping, computer hacking, driving cars.
  • For social interactions, this could mean being part of the same class or subculture as a person you’re trying to convince or deceive.
• +1d12 if prepared, e.g. an aimed shot, a strike after a feint, or working without any time pressure.

Training and preparation are subject to GM discretion.

The Under of a roll is based on the character’s most relevant aptitude (An, Em, or Ph). A die passes if its value is below the Under and fails if it is equal or greater. For most out of combat actions, the outcome of an attempt is as follows:

passing dice	result
0	failure, something may go wrong
1	success with a caveat
2	success
3+	critical success

However, certain tasks may have additional dice requirements, e.g. picking a lock may have a difficulty of (-1d), meaning that 1 fewer die is available than would otherwise be. This would mean that an amateur has no hope of picking a box’s lock under time pressure, but might if they could take it home (preparation). However, in this case their greatest hope would be “success with a caveat” , e.g. a trap might be activated or their tool may break off inside it.

Combat

A violent or otherwise time sensitive encounter may be abstracted to a simple action die roll or played out using the optional combat rules.

If abstracted, each party member should roll Ph, which are then summed for the party and compared to the encounter target, which is usually based on a multiple of the number of components. Characters may take damage based on their individual rolls.

Equipment

For the sake of simplicity, money should be denominated in a setting appropriate currency (e.g. silver, pence, sesterii, credits, quants) approximately equivalent to USD/EUR with prices derived from real world data.

Magic

If magic, including deities, exist in the setting, it should be truly magical, i.e. mystical, poorly understood, and most importantly dangerous. Magic should not be mechanical or predictable in any way.

Example Character Sheets (write on index card)

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Name: Sir Asgar of Jouré | Description: 28, fair, noble, commanding

Analytical: 6 | Emotional: 8 | Physical: 4/4 (Move: 3m)

Nationality: Jouré | Social Class: Noble | Education: Squireship

Vocation: Knight Speciality: Rallying troops

Experiences: Military campaigns for Mayor of Jouré

Gear: lance (-1, +2d12, requires competing Ph roll to move inside reach), shortsword (+1, +2d), pointed shield (1c), full plate (2d)

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Name: Siobhan O’Sullivan | Description: 42, blonde, quiet

Analytical: 7 | Emotional: 4 | Physical: 7/7 (Move: 4m)

Nationality: Irish | Social Class: Middle | Education: College

Vocation: Special Projects Director, The Agency (Spy) Speciality: Improvised explosive devices

Experiences: former Agency field agent, former P-IRA member

Gear: Uzi (-1 -1/6m, 2d, 6a, 2r), bullet proof vest (-1d), $15k cash>