A Long Time Ago is a tabletop role-playing game for kids and adults. It’s designed to be easy and fun, and to introduce younger players to the world of role-playing games. Right now the game is adapted to ancient Egypt and Greece, and ultimately it will include Dark Ages Europe. It has historical and anthropological elements intended to be educational for younger players.


Dice
A Long Time Ago uses common d6 with dots, and colored d4, d6, and d8. The common die is for standard rolls to do most things, while the colored dice are for using items.


Abilities

• Might describes how big and strong your adventurer is, and how good he is at attacking.
  
• Agility shows his speed and quickness, and is used when defending yourself or sneaking about.
  
• Intelligence is used for a variety of things like starting fires without a light, figuring out if someone is lying to you, remembering something you’ve learned, getting a hint from the game master, and for using magic.
  
• Senses is used for things like spotting seeing hidden treasure or hearing enemies sneaking up on you.
  
• Looks of course is your charm and attractiveness, and how good you are at getting what you want from people.
  

All ability scores start at +0. During character creation, roll d6 six times, increasing the ability shown by 1; on a 6, increase any ability as desired. Abilities increase +1 after each adventure to a maximum of +3, or +4 in one stat. There are no classes or skills - abilities to a certain extent represent a combination of innate talent and refined ability. Rolls are Die + Ability, with 5 being a typical target difficulty.


Some Basic Equipment
Equipment is simulated with cards containing the name of the item and a picture. (An important feature, especially for kids still learning to read - "sword" and "shield" look a lot the same to a 1st grader.)

You cannot carry more items than 6 + your Might!

• Dagger: (ATT d4, DEF d4) - 6 coins - Small, easy to conceal.
• Axe: (ATT d8, DEF d4) - 18 coins - Two-handed. Good for chopping through things.
• Sword: (ATT d6, DEF d6) - 24 coins - Wieldy and good for parrying.
• Shield: Roll d8 to defend - 10 coins - Can be hacked apart with repeated blows.
• Helmet: +1 Health Box - 18 coins.
• Food: 1 coin - This can be any kind of food, like jerky, a load of bread, a wheel of cheese, or a bag of dates. Eat it to heal 1 wound. You cannot eat more often than once every 6 hours.

Combat
Whoever has the longer weapon (or attacks from surprise, or should for whatever reason have the first go) strikes first. Roll the attack die for your weapon and add your Might. The defender rolls the defense die for his weapon and adds Agility. If you're hit, you're off balance and lose your action for the round.


Damage
All characters have two health boxes. Every time you're wounded, cross off a health box; when both are crossed off, you're out. Wearing armor items gives you an extra health box per item (maximum +4).


Example of Magic - Egypt
To work Egyptian magic, one must use a magic talisman and roll the appropriate die, adding any intelligence bonus. If you roll above the target difficulty, you successfully cast the spell. If you fail, you have offended the gods by mispronouncing their secret names; put an O by your health. To recover from this offense, you must make a burnt offering to the gods by using fire to destroy a food item.


Example Talisman

• Emerald Wedjat - 42 qedet (coins) - Magic—d8 for Ray of Ruin and See the Other World, d4 for any other magic. (Also known as the “Eye of Horus,” the Wedjat is a decorated amulet formed in the shape of an eye with an emerald iris.)

Example Spell

• See the Other World (Difficulty 4): Roll Intelligence against Difficulty 4 to see hidden doorways, secret enchantments, and invisible beings. While looking into the other world, swirling magenta skies and grass the color of lapus lazuli growing from the desert dunes distract and confuse you.

Some Rules for Older Players

• Characters pick an ability to increase after their first adventure, and thereafter only increase abilities after a particularly climactic game, as per the gamemaster’s ruling—most adventures won’t allow an ability increase. The highest an ability can be is 2, or 3 for one attribute.
• If you cross off all your health boxes, roll on your Might. If you fail, roll d6 to see if you survive. On a 1-5, reduce that ability by 1. On a 6, you die.
• You must eat one item of food every day or lose a Health box. Healing is only accomplished with rest: Wounded once, recover after a night’s rest. Wounded more than once, heal 1 wound after a full day’s rest. Incapacitated, heal 1 wound after a full day’s rest on a successful Might roll.
  
• If you have only one Health box left, you can’t add any ability bonuses to your rolls.

Things This Game Does Not Have

• Classes or Levels
• Skills separate from attributes
• Character Sheets bigger than a 3x5 index card
• Tables to reference during a battle
• Alignment
• Arithmetic more difficult than division of numbers 5 and under by 2

I should add that I'm posting this primarily for conversational purposes. There's a lot here that I'm very fond of, but I wouldn't consider everything in it to be ideal. The things about it that aren't my usual preference are done for a specific reason, though - namely, to appeal to children and novice gamers.

So, I understand this is your own work in progress, right?

Good thing, if so, I for one welcome a kid's introductory RPG. Could you say a few words about the intended general feel of the game? Is it going to, say tap into the typical reading list of the intended audience and have Harry Pottery-Percy Jacksony overtones? Or perhaps something else?

Quote from: Premier;578252Good thing, if so, I for one welcome a kid's introductory RPG.

Insofar as most gamers come to the hobby at a young age, that is very much my own attitude. I prefer to play games with more accuracy in simulation - standard number ranges, only one kind of die (preferably d6), no separate "health" stat, armor reducing damage rather than just adding max health, and clearly delineated skills. But all this crunch makes for a rather austere game with a steep learning curve that tends to alienate younger players. (Dave Morris may not like them, but kids think funny dice are loads of fun.)

QuoteCould you say a few words about the intended general feel of the game?

Sure. The rules are built around items; everything has an item card with a picture on it, and you put the one or two items in your hand over your sheet so that it's easy to see what you're doing. It ends up being a very different style from other RPGs that I've seen, because items really end up "taking the place" of skills. For instance, in the Dark Ages setting you can use a crucifix to pray for light, while an Athenian can use a Sage's Brooch to identify a substance or deduce the answer to a question that would otherwise be unanswerable.

Period accuracy was a major motivator, with fanciful elements either taken from myth or invented to fit with the theme, like talking cats in Egypt. Of course, this means that the game varies a good deal with the setting, since (for example) Egyptian notions of magic were different from those of the Hellenic era. In Egypt it's more to do with carrying one or two talismans that do many things, while in Greece there are items with more specific application, like the lute that allows you to speed healing or improve courage, but is useless at things like transforming people into animals or making potions.

So it's really not based on any books or films; the goal was to come up with something that could appeal to kids, historians who never roleplay, and experienced hobbyists, all together at the same time.