Posted on 2024-11-05 The Dragon's Egg A System agnostic TTRPG by Larry Heyl Licensed CC BY The goal of the game is to steal the dragon's egg. The game includes exploration, combat, and puzzles. Exploration --- The DM adjudicates actions and decides when the dragon is going to attack the party. When not in combat the party travels together to try to find the dragon's lair so they can steal the dragon's egg. The DM chooses the rules for exploration using any published system or their own system. The players make a character sheet for the chosen system. The players encounter NPCs who can be good or bad on their travels who they can talk to. They also encounter animals or monsters on their travels that are more difficult to talk to. Every encounter should contain clues to the location of the dragon's lair. The players act in any order saying what they would like to do and the DM adjudicates their success. The DM might use dice rolls to determine the difficulty of the action or the DM might not need dice rolls for this. The DM just says yes you can do that or they can tell the player what to roll to suceed in the action. The DM never says you can't do that. Instead they say that will be really difficult. To do that you'll have to roll a critical success and if you don't roll a crit bad things might happen. And the story begins. You are all drinking in a tavern called The Dragon's Egg. You've been staying here for over a week partying every night, sleeping in every day. It's already dark when you realize you don't have enough money left to pay for a room for the night. You call the barkeep, Olaf Cranberry, over to the table and explain your situation. You've been good customers and he doesn't really want you sleeping in the common room so he says, "You've been good customers so I'll put your room on the tab for tonight. But on one condition. I'll wake you early in the morning and off you go to steal the dragon's egg. After you sell the egg you'll be rich so you have to promise to come back and settle up with Olaf." You're all drunk so you agree and after one more round you trundle off to bed. At the crack of dawn there's Olaf, waking you up and putting you out. Oh no, you think, barely remembering what you had agreed to do last night. Once Olaf has you out of his tavern he says, "Go north. All the dragons are in the north." All of the above are just suggestions. It's totally up to the DM to decide how they are going to run exploration and start the story. Combat System --- All players start with 5 d6 dice. The dragon starts with 5 plus the number of players d6 dice. Other antagonists will have fewer d6 dice to start with. A Turn The players attack in any order. They describe what they are going to do and they roll all of the dice in front of them. If they have n dice left they have to roll 3n to hit. If they hit the dragon puts one die in the middle of the table. If a player hits, the dragon shoots a firebolt at that player. If the dragon rolls n dice, a total of 3n or better hits. If the dragon hits, the player puts one die in the center of the table. After the players roll the dragon uses her breath weapon. If the dice roll is not critical all players move one die to the center of the table. Critical success is all sixes. Critical success gives double damage. Two die go into the middle of the table. If there is only one die left a six is a critical success. Critical failure is all ones. One die goes into the middle of the table. If there is only one die left a one is a critical failure. Combat ends when either the players have no dice left or the dragon has no dice left. There is no death in combat. When a player has no dice left they are unconscious. If all the players are unconscious they wake up imprisoned in a dungeon. If the dragon has no dice left she flies away. Combat with NPCs or monsters is the same except when their turn comes at the end of a round of cambat they attack with whatever weapons or spells they have. If the players win the NPCs or monsters are unconscious and the players can safely leave without fear or worries about being followed. Their defeated enemies will not strike again because they don't want another whooping. If the players lose they wake up where they are with no money, food, or weapons except knives, daggers, walking sticks, or other small weapons. Anything from a crossbow up is gone. Magic users still have their staff, books, and scrolls. Imprisonment --- If the players wake up in a dungeon they must escape the dungeon before they can continue the quest. Every dungeon is a puzzle. (Sample dungeons should be included. Also a way for people to submit their dungeon puzzles. The dungeons can be as simple as a three room dungeon with a monster guarding the exit to classic logic puzzles or magical runes and lore.) The End Of The Game --- The final combat is in the dragon's lair. If the players win the dragon flies away, the players steal the dragon's egg, and they win. Now that they have the egg they can Rule The World but they don't really want to do that so they sell the egg and party until they run out of money. If they play again they are on a quest to steal another dragon's egg. If the dragon wins the players wake up in the dungeon under the mountain and it's the end of the game. If they play again they must escape from the dungeon under the mountain, an even harder puzzle. The dungeon under the mountain is a cave with no entrances or exits so when the players solve the puzzle they are teleported to an unknown destination. From there they continue their quest to steal the dragon's egg.