The ten-minute rulebook
Learn Forged in the Dark by playing with it.
Every game on Elrune has its own short guide: the core roll, a turn, health and harm, and how characters grow. Every roll here runs the same rules code as the table.
The dice of every game, in 3D, and how to type a roll
CHAPTER 1
The core roll
Say what you do and pick the action that fits, such as Prowl, Skirmish or Sway. Roll as many six-sided dice as your rating in that action (0 to 4) and read the highest die: a 6 is a full success, 4 or 5 a success with a consequence, 1 to 3 a bad outcome. Two or more 6s is a critical. With no dice at all you roll two and keep the lowest, and cannot get a critical.
Before the roll the GM sets your position, controlled, risky or desperate, which decides how bad the consequences can be, and your effect, limited, standard or great, which decides how much you get done. A desperate roll marks experience.
Try it · An action roll
Set it up, then roll.
A demo: rolled in your browser. At a table every roll is made on the server.
CHAPTER 2
A turn
There is no turn order. The GM frames the scene, players say what their characters do, and each action roll settles one moment. A teammate can assist for an extra die (it costs them 1 stress), you can push yourself for an extra die or more effect (2 stress each), or accept a Devil’s Bargain for an extra die.
Clocks of 4, 6 or 8 segments track obstacles and dangers; the GM ticks them by the effect of your rolls.
CHAPTER 3
Health and harm
A consequence can be resisted: roll the matching attribute and pay 6 minus the highest die in stress (a critical clears 1 stress instead). Armor can also reduce it.
Harm comes in levels: level 1 reduces your effect, level 2 costs a die, level 3 means you need help to act, and level 4 is fatal. When you mark your last stress box you take a trauma and are out of action; reaching the table’s trauma limit ends the character’s career.
CHAPTER 4
How characters grow
Experience goes on four tracks: insight, prowess, resolve and your playbook. Desperate rolls mark experience in that attribute, and at the end of each session your table’s triggers earn 1 or 2 more; training in downtime adds more. A full attribute track lets you add a dot to one of its actions, up to 3; a full playbook track gives a new special ability.
Ready for a table?
Elrune keeps the bookkeeping of Forged in the Dark: every roll on the server, the sheet worked out, the turn order and the harm tracked, so your table can tell the story.