After a year of testing, mulling over and refining, I have finally released *Plot Armor, *a TTRPG rule system distilled from my own home brew game that I’ve run to and fro for my local gaming group. Plot Armor is influenced by the FKR (Frei Kriegsspiel Renaissance) movement, but it has slightly more rules than pure FKR. The main element is that most rulings are primarily based on the Referee’s common sense.
PCs (like any story protagonists) have Plot Armor, a single resource combining HP, health, luck, fate etc in one - it measures their ability to avoid the (serious) consequences of their actions. But unlike such systems in other games, the Players don’t know exactly how much Plot Armor they have left at any moment! When they role play dangerously, fails a dangerous roll, …
After a year of testing, mulling over and refining, I have finally released *Plot Armor, *a TTRPG rule system distilled from my own home brew game that I’ve run to and fro for my local gaming group. Plot Armor is influenced by the FKR (Frei Kriegsspiel Renaissance) movement, but it has slightly more rules than pure FKR. The main element is that most rulings are primarily based on the Referee’s common sense.
PCs (like any story protagonists) have Plot Armor, a single resource combining HP, health, luck, fate etc in one - it measures their ability to avoid the (serious) consequences of their actions. But unlike such systems in other games, the Players don’t know exactly how much Plot Armor they have left at any moment! When they role play dangerously, fails a dangerous roll, or want to introduce a new element to the story, they draw a Plot Armor card to determine if they are "out of Plot Armor". The odds of this varies from 1/6 to 1/2 but it’s never guaranteed; in game play testing this has turned out be quite intense! Plot Armor permeates the system, and is also used by NPCs and other entities in the game world.
PCs are built around how they "Approach" problems (like Fate Accelerated, but more free-form). I’ve found these approaches act as role-play guides more than abstract numbers or even skills. Dice rolls involve the Referee and Player each proposing an outcome and rolling small pools of dice to see which one happens.
The PDF rule book gathers the full rules in two pages. The rule book has 12 pages elaborating the rules with more explanations, followed by 30+ pages of Referee hints and examples of play. The book also includes a starter game world (cops solving mysteries in a corrupt little town), and a starter adventure with 5 pre-made characters along with some design commentary. All art by me (no AI)!
I’m releasing Plot Armor’s text as Creative Commons Attributions (you can redistribute, including commercially, as long as you give attribution), and the PDF is Free/pay-what-you-want. :)
Hope you find it interesting!
Files
Get Plot Armor RPG rules
Plot Armor RPG rules
A rules-light TTRPG where Players never know how long they can tempt fate
| Status | Released |
| Category | Physical game |
| Author | Griatch |
| Genre | Role Playing |
| Tags | fkr, No AI, rules-lite, Tabletop role-playing game |
| Languages | English |