Developing a game about Brownies called The Meddlers. Looking for play testers if anyone is interested. It is set in a kind of after life and takes a rulings over rules approach. Very light and simple. A bit different from our other games. Uses a d4 dice pool mechanic.

Whoa! Sounds cool, Brendan!

-clash

thanks.

This is the basic concept:

About Meddlers
This is a game about Brownies, little people who help humanity in ways that often go unnoticed. Set in the world of Tol-Shenda, a place of twilight and walled cities, where people exist in a fog and feel vaguely out of place. Something isn't quite right in Tol-Shenda. Things that should not be, are, and things that ought to be are not. There is technology in Tol-Shenda, sometimes advanced technology, but the people have forgotten their past and so rather than advance things tend to rust. Humans go about their lives, afraid to venture beyond the cities, unaware they are the center of a cosmic struggle.

The Goddess Naura stands on the side of light striving to redeem humanity. You are her people, her Brownies, and you are tasked with gently guiding this fallen race to greatness. The god Nages broods in the darkness and contemplates man's destruction. He has his minions as well and as you grow in power, their efforts to thwart you intensify.

Brownies are small but brave, and have just a touch of magic in their soul that enables them to do extraordinary things. Brownies also come in great variety from heroic Thick-Hides to magical Spell-Singers. They live in the nooks and spaces of human cities, their surnames are often the streets where they were born. They trade in gossip and food and have a love for life that is nearly boundless. But they are bound by a strict law: do not interfere with the free-will of man. Those who violate this code risk falling into disfavor with their goddess.

Because of their size the simplest things can be an enormous adventure for a Brownie. Sneaking into a home to eavesdrop for some gossip can mean facing a maze of crawlspaces, venomous insects, cruel rats and deadly traps (sadly humanity regards Brownies as pests). Brownies go on countless adventures helping the humans they feel drawn to. They may work to aid a single human over an entire lifetime or move from one person to the next each week.

This is the core Mechanic:

THE CORE MECHANIC
The core mechanic of The Meddlers is quite simple, you roll a pool of four sided dice* against an opposing pool of four sided dice. Both sides take the single highest result and compare them. If the aggressor meets or exceeds the result of the opposing pool she succeeds. Sometimes this will be rolled against another character's pool, sometimes the GM will roll a pool to reflect the difficulty of a task when it isn't against a foe. The Aggressor is always the person taking action, attacking, etc.

Damage rolls work differently. While Damage Rolls also sometimes involve multiple dice, these are added together.

*For some creatures that are bigger than brownies they will roll larger dice for certain actions.

The Little People helping selected humans and maybe through them helping humanity in general sounds interesting and not over done.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;802459THE CORE MECHANIC
The core mechanic of The Meddlers is quite simple, you roll a pool of four sided dice* against an opposing pool of four sided dice.

I am curious, is there any particular reason you chose to use D4s for the basic mechanic. They don't roll as well as D6s nor are they found in as copious quantities in the dice bags of most gamers as D6s and D10s or D20s.

Quote from: Bren;802476I am curious, is there any particular reason you chose to use D4s for the basic mechanic. They don't roll as well as D6s nor are they found in as copious quantities in the dice bags of most gamers as D6s and D10s or D20s.

The main reason is purely aesthetic. I really find rolling a handful of d4s captures the feel of playing brownies for some reason. Second reason is I have always wanted to play around with d4 dice pools because of the tight range. They are less common than d6s or d10s so that is a consideration (I actually had to buy a bunch to playtest it because I apparently only have two d4).

Originally I was going to scale the whole system, so brownies roll d4 dice pools, small creatures roll d6s, larger creatures roll d8s and humans roll d10s. That proved a bit too clunky so I junked it. But I did keep it as part of our damage system. Damage you roll a number of dice and add them together (whereas skill rolls are roll a pool of dice and take the single highest result). For damage rolls we kept that scaling. So humans would roll 2d10 for a knife while brownies would roll 2d4.

Here is a blog entry I just posted that gets into how the mapping of areas in the game might play out: http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-backyard-worlds-of-meddlers.html

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;802514I really find rolling a handful of d4s captures the feel of playing brownies for some reason.

Both are small and both may hurt you if you step on them?

Quote from: Bren;802548Both are small and both may hurt you if you step on them?

More the size. But the caltrop aspect is also nice.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;802561More the size. But the caltrop aspect is also nice.

I always think of the tiny fairies like the brownies as being sharp in more than one sense of the word.

It sounds fun. I'd volunteer to play test, but I don't have the time or player base to run multiple games.

Quote from: Bren;802568I always think of the tiny fairies like the brownies as being sharp in more than one sense of the word.

It sounds fun. I'd volunteer to play test, but I don't have the time or player base to run multiple games.

I can always use readers as well.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;802569I can always use readers as well.

That I can do...Well I can do it if the game comes in under 250 pages.

Quote from: Bren;802573That I can do...Well I can do it if the game comes in under 250 pages.

Right now the file is 60 pages and may grow to 80 or 90. Final book will pribaboy be 60-70 pages.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;802574Right now the file is 60 pages and may grow to 80 or 90. Final book will pribaboy be 60-70 pages.

Sign me up for reading.

I'd be happy to give it a read. (As always time is limited for actual playtesting, existing campaigns taking precedence).