Recently I took screenshots of the Fighter, Thief, Cleric and Magic-User/Wizard from Shadowdark, Labyrinth Lord, Swords and Wizardry, and Hundred Dungeons. I sent them to my players to see which classes excited them. Then I was drawn to Knave's spell list. Then I got to thinking about not just what I liked about my favorite rule systems but why.
Then I had an idea, instead of printing different classes/spells/monsters/rules from various rule-systems and frankenstein-ing a rule book to use, why not just write my own!
Thus, Into the Wild and Dangerous was born.
Anyone who is familiar with d20 Fantasy RPGs will see plenty of familiar elements.
- 4 Ancestries: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human
- 20 Backgrounds: 1 sentence descriptions for what your character did before picking up adventuring
- 4 Classes: Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Magic-User
- Feats: 8 for each class, over the course of your career you gain 3 from your class list and 2 from any list, building your own "subclass"
- Spells: Roll to cast spells similar to Shadowdark.
(If you want a random character, every aspect of character creation is able to be rolled with a dice!)
What makes this different?
- Omens: Instead of just handing out inspiration, the Game Master can portent the future of the characters by narrating an ominous natural phenomena happening around them.
"As you are packing your horse’s saddlebags with all your gear for your journey you see a raven perched on a nearby signpost, picking at the bones of some poor critter.”
The player notes this on their character sheet and when they feel their omen coming to fruition in game, they can cash in on it and reroll any d20. This is a more fiction-forward approach to 5e's Inspiration.
- Oaths: Players can make swear long term promises that are continuously tested over the course of their life. When these oaths are tested and the players prove themselves stalwart, they are granted XP.
- On a Scale of... This mechanic is similar to the Oracle die used in many games. This is a simple way to resolve details that GMs might not have a quick answer for like "how loud was the skeleton falling down the well?" or "How hard is it raining outside?"
The GM rolls a d10, and the 1-10 scale determines the severity (1 being least and 10 being most severe outcome). I think Gandalf rolled a 10 when Pippin goofed in Moria.
- Practical Game Master advice: The GM section is inspired Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master but taken with an OSR game in mind.
- Easy to Run Monsters: Everything you need to run a monsters fits in 1 sentence.
- 100% Human-Made: I made use of wonderful art that is accessible in the Public Domain instead of anything AI-Generated.
Link to the itch.io page, link to the drivethrurpg page.
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