The Book of Lengsnacht - Ultralight Rules

Hello everyone, I am pleased to share the ultralight rules for The Book of Lengsnacht, a game I came up with around two years ago for a campaign. That campaign has ended, but I am still enjoying writing about the world and now I am trying to share the rules as well.

These rules are meant to be a preview for the wider rules to come. They cover the main mechanics of the game, primarily the basics character stats and how to turn those stats into actions. But they also cover in brief how combat and magic function, and what types of stats items carry. 

The basic principle is something I call Stats Over Dice. Instead of more advanced systems, where stats have values that are then converted into basic bonuses, resources or pools, I have developed something I think is a little easier for my fellow simpletons to understand. In Stats Over Dice, a character's relevant Attribute and Skill scores are added in total to a d20 dice. For reference, Attributes range 1-10 and Skills range 0-8. That's the crux of the whole thing.

Hopefully this makes sense. I am unfortunately not a very articulate person, so if the rules come across as confusing or unclear that is why! I promise the game works and has been successfully played a number of times. I would like to make a disclaimer that the exact values of certain things are subject to change, and I may amend this book not only for copy but also to add or update the rules themselves. So consider this document living for at least the time being. I should also say upfront that once I've finished writing up and polishing the full rules, these ultralight rules will still remain pay-as-you-wish in perpetuity, since they are also a preview of the entire game.

Please, enjoy!

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THE BOOK OF LENGSNACHT

The Book of Lengsnacht contains a medieval fantasy world of both high reaches and low trials, as well as a framework through which friends may explore it together, in the form of a pen and paper role playing game. 

Like our own world, there is no shortage of beauty or adventure, nor is there a shortage of despair, mystery and terror.

The captains of the airships of the Sky Country may live a life of high adventure among the islands floating in the clouds, while the mariners miles below might make a career of unrelenting horror as their vessels are assailed by the evils of the Nacht Sea. 

This world defies easy categorization. Subjects like whether the Once and Future Holy Empire is truly ruled by faith or by fear is a matter for debate. Soldiers spill blood on distant battlefields, state-backed blockade runners avoid the patrols and fleets of the Sturgeon League, defying tariffs and death until they don’t, and families joke with each other as they tend to their crops. Lantern knights bring death to the corrupt with glowing weapons of purgation, while a thousand miles away ministerials bicker and disagree over petty matters of state. In the west interpid explorers seek and discover uncharted wilderness, though they might find some things that seek to remain hidden.

Scholars argue over whether the forces that shape the world are beyond understanding or simply not yet understood. At lecterns, pubs, and kitchen tables, people offer explanations as to the origins of Lengsnacht, the festering wound at the heart of the natural order.

This world is shaped by forces familiar to us - geography, technology, warfare, finance - and some that are not. 

Its continents are vast, primal, occasionally airborne, and populated by people with history. 

It is a world worth exploring - so long as you don’t sail too far into the Nacht Sea.