RPG Errata: Iron Halberd, and Rules-Light

Iron Halberd, by Level2janitor, is a medium weight OSR Fantasy RPG. Recognizing the variety of definitions in the world, the game clarifies OSR to mean that the game is deadly, the story is player-driven, resource management is important, and the system itself is compatible with most other OSR resources.

Anyone familiar with OSR systems will be quickly familiar with most of Iron Halberd’s offerings. Stats are randomly generated, the world is deadly, and the focus of the story is on the player’s actions, rather than the GM’s Mary-Sue villains. Inspired by Dungeon Crawl Classics, Knave, and 13th Age; the system has rules for warbands, strongholds, crafting, hirelings, and long-travel.

Combat is simple enough, drawing direct inspiration from the simplest of OSR systems: you roll 1d20 and add your Accuracy stat. If you roll above your target’s Armor stat, you hit, otherwise you miss. There are some interesting twists, such as a miss still dealing damage equal to half your Power stat, but all in all, it’s a simple and elegant combat system.

But what does “medium weight” mean?

We have different ways of describing RPGs, enough that a small glossary might be helpful. Often times we describe RPGs through the stories they encourage, such as calling it a “Fantasy” or “Sci-Fi” RPG. Other times we describe the specific IP it’s based on, such as a “Dune RPG,” “Star Wars RPG,” or “Game of Thrones RPG.”

Other times, we focus on the system itself. We call games “Powered by the Apocalypse” or “Illuminated by LUMEN” to tell those in-the-know how the dice or cards are used and how players are expected to decide “what happens next.”

We can even describe a type of mindset required to engage with specific systems, such as OSR, Tactical, or Narrative.

Then there’s that other spectrum we use all the time: “Rules-light” to “Rules-heavy.”¹

The two terms shouldn’t take too much explanation, but like most simple terms, they hide quite a bit of interesting depth. For example: is FATE rules-light? The basics of FATE are easily picked up and easy to master. Most everything is decided by a 4dF roll that is then compared to a target number. Aspects and fate points give +2 bonuses, or allow for re-rolls. Add its narrative focus and willingness — nay, eagerness — to throw out rules in favor of story, and it’s easy to call FATE “rules-light.”

What does “rules-heavy” look like? Exalted is considered “rules-heavy,” as is Shattered, Lancer, and Pathfinder. What links these systems together? Lots of individual systems, resources, and codified situations. Combat in Exalted requires remembering multiple pairings of stats and skills to know how many dice to roll, and multiple rules for various maneuvers. Shattered has chapters on how to build zombies, pilot skyships, handle magic, crafting, martial arts, and more. Lancer allows for countless viable options when creating your mechs, to the point that every strategy has two or three possible counters. Pathfinder’s core book has over 580 pages.

Okay, I threw that last one in there as kind of a joke, but all humor has some truth in it…is page-number actually a good measure of rules-lightness? Probably not, because a book with one page of rules and a hundred pages of setting is still rules-light, right? Lord of the Rings has hundreds of pages, and it’s not a very good RPG rule-book.

Or is it?

We’ve looked at narrative RPGs before, and I’ve certainly gone on for too long about story rules. Five-hundred pages of story-building can certainly provide just as much structure to a campaign as five-hundred pages of charts and dice-mechanics.

Structure is really the watchword here, isn’t it? If we look at free-play as one side of the spectrum, where “what happens next” is limited only by your imagination, then every page worth of provided context provides limits on that play. “What happens next” can be anything within the confines of the system and setting: no pulling out laser-pistols in Middle Earth, no killing monsters without rolling over their Armor Rating.

Maybe page-number is a good metric of rules-lightness; it centers on rules and story supporting or limiting what happens next. The more “heavy” an RPG is, the less abandon the players can have in their play.

Now, it’s important to mention that I don’t mean players have less control over the story. Playing a Middle Earth RPG doesn’t mean you can’t create new kingdoms, histories, characters, or monsters; but you might find it awkward if Mordor or the Kingdom of Rohan doesn’t exist. In that case, why play a Middle Earth RPG at all?

It works with tone too: You can play a comedic Middle Earth RPG, but after reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, you can’t say that Middle Earth is designed for slapstick. Better to look at systems like Critical! Go Westerly or settings like Discworld.

So, to carry this concept to its conclusion, the rules-lightest RPGs are the single-sheeters. Honey-Heist or Lasers and Feelings, for example, only take up a single piece of paper. You can’t get more rules-light than that, can you?

Okay, but what about Hack ’n Slash? It’s entire ruleset also only fits on one page of paper, so it has to be rules-light too, right? But look at the rules and suddenly you realize that Lasers and Feelings and Hack n’ Slash are two very different games. Lasers and Feelings is largely narrative focused, hand-waving details and leaving them up to the story, while Hack n’ Slash provides a number of hard-and-fast rules on how combat, dungeon delving, and item management work.

It appears there are another few rule-qualities we should examine. We could imagine an RPG with one page of rules, but the rules involve trigonometry and complex geometry; is that rules-light? If there are only five rules, but each requires seven die-rolls and interplays with the others, is that rules-light? If each player action can be resolved with a different single die roll, but there is a dictionary-worth of “possible actions,” is that rules-light?

We could say, rather than number of pages, it’s number of seconds between test and result? If a game takes only a moment to decide if something happens, it’s more rules-light than a game that takes half a minute? But the more familiar you are with a system, the faster these questions get answered, meaning whether a game is rules-light depends on who’s playing it.

We could try and come up with an ephemeral “complexity” quality, such that a universal simple rule (e.g. roll 1d6 and roll over 3 to succeed, no matter what you’re trying to do) is more rules-light than a complicated bespoke one, (e.g. roll your stat dice plus your skill dice and compare your result to the combat success table to see if you trip your opponent) but that sounds exhausting, pedantic, and fundamentally subjective.

So personally, I’ll fall back on the “number of pages” metric. It requires some qualification, of course, but it’s a good rule of thumb. Fewer and simpler rules take fewer pages to communicate, so the fewer pages, the lighter the rules. It also accounts for setting providing their own limits, so I think I’m happy with it for now.

So what does “Rules-Medium” mean? A book of only 50 pages?

“Oh come on, it’s obvious what Rules-Medium means: it’s got more rules than Lasers and Feelings, but fewer than Exalted. You don’t have to overthink everything, you know!”

Sorry, my brain works differently. See, something interesting happens with “Rules-Medium” level of games. Rule-heavy games, by virtue of their detail, comprise large amounts of content — signposts if you will — that guide the structure of play. Rules-light games, on the other hand, provide a lot of empty space to be filled with the players own ideas.

With these comparative restrictions/freedoms, however, comes some corrisponding opposites. With so many rules, rules-heavy games can survive hacks and adjustments better than rules-light games. A game with only one rule, however, must keep that rule, else you aren’t really playing that game, are you?

Rules-medium games have a facinating amount of freedom and rigidity. They can be used for one-shots or long campaigns, can be hacked or played straight, or anything inbetween. It’s possible that this is a “post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc” sort of thing: one-shot stories simply can’t support large reams of rules. Olaf Hits the Dragon With His Sword would be ridiculous if it was longer than a single page. Large rulebooks require long stories, if for no other reason to experience all the different rules. If there’s a whole chapter devoted to mass-combat, you’ve got to progress far enough that the king will lend you his army, right?

For whatever reason, there is a bit of a tendency for players to say of rules-light games, “it’s interesting, and good for a one shot, but I’m not sure how it would support a long term campaign.” The sentiment that “rules support long-term games” is an interesting one, and one that I feel is deserving of some exploration.

Do rules support play? Without rules, is play substandard? Does, in fact free play even exist?

Next time, I’d like to take a look at Rules and Procedures.