Polyhedral Nonsense<p><a href="https://manadawnttg.itch.io/lilliputian" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><strong>Lilliputian </strong></a>is a short(62 pages), rules-light fantasy RPG by Matthew Morris. It’s based heavily on Into The Odd, Mausritter and other NSR/OSR systems. The game is intended to create seafaring adventures of exploration in a fantasy world.</p><p>I recently ran a quick one-shot of this, and made some fillable character sheets that I thought I’d share.</p><a href="https://manadawnttg.itch.io/lilliputian" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><p><strong>Basic System</strong></p><p>The system itself is quite simple. Each character has three stats – STR, DEX, & WIL. They’re generated randomly with 2d6+3 rolls.</p><p>To resist danger or carry out a risky action, a player makes a <em>Save</em>. It’s a roll on a D20. A roll equal to or below the appropriate stat is a success. Players can roll with advantage or disadvantage.</p><p>For combat, you roll a 2d6. You only miss if you roll a 2. Otherwise, you just roll damage, possibly with a advantage or disadvantage depending on the 2d6 roll.</p><p>Damage goes directly to the target’s HP, and then to STR. When STR is at zero, the target dies. HP scores are quite low in Lilliputian, and attacks rarely miss, so it can be a quite deadly game.</p><p>New characters start with d6 HP.</p><p>There are no classes or skills. You abilities are based on your inventory. If you have a sword, you can fight. With a musket, you can shoot. With a scroll, you can cast magic.</p><p>Many items have a <em>Durability</em>. If an item is used, a D6 roll is made. If there’s a 4, 5, or 6, the item loses a Durability point. After three points, the item needs to be repaired or replaced.</p><p><strong>Lots of tables</strong></p><p>Probably the heart of the game is the multitude of random tables for things. There are several tables for character creation, including Virtues, Vices, Reputation, and Physique. They let you create new characters quickly.</p><p>There’s an starting equipment chart where you cross-reference the player’s highest stat and their HP, to get the starting equipment.</p><p>There are tables for creating islands, oceans, dungeons, sea monsters, and settlements.</p><p><strong>Ships</strong></p><p>Since this is seafaring game, there are rules for ships. Ships are treated like characters with their own stats and HP. There’s a list of 6 starter ships, and 12 other varieties. Ships have inventory slots</p><p>Ship combat is pretty simple. Each ship has cannons that inflict HP and STR damage on other ships. They can be boarded after losing all HP and failing a STR Save. When STR reaches zero, the ship starts to sink.</p><p>There are rules for hiring crews and retainers.</p><p><strong>Magic</strong></p><p>There are two kinds of magic in Lilliputian – scrolls or talismans.</p><p>Each magic scroll has one spell. If a character casts it they can decide how many dice they want to roll. They more dice the roll, the more powerful the spell effects. However, for every 4 or 5 rolled, the item loses a Durability point. If any die is a 6, the spell is lost, and a Mishaps table is rolled to decide what happens.</p><p>There are also talismans – magic items with limited charges. Two example items are provided.</p><p><strong>Other Bits</strong></p><ul><li>A dice drop system for creating random oceans</li><li>Solo play rules</li><li>A short bestiary of sea monsters</li><li>Conversion rules for OSR games.</li><li>Faction Rules</li><li>A basic setting – The Swirling Sea of the South. It includes a wavecrawl hex map with island, encounters, and a dungeon.</li><li>It doesn’t seem to have any real affect on the game play, but the rules state the characters are only six inches tall (hence the title).</li></ul><p><strong>Nitpicks</strong></p><p>Generally I liked this game, but there are a few little issues.</p><ul><li>There are some small concepts and rules not entirely explained. For example, you can fish for rations, but there aren’t any rules for using up rations, or going hungry or thirsty. It’s also unclear how much inventory slots rations take up.</li><li>Another example – the ship combat rules don’t really specify how may cannons can go into a inventory slot, and how many you can fire a round. When I ran it, I ruled they could fire half of them, being on one side of the ship, but an official rule would have been nice.</li><li>There’s not a lot of support. No modules or supplements I could find.</li></ul><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p>It’s a solid but light RPG with a lot of nautical atmosphere. The rules-light OSR style rules are probably best for more experienced GMs. Even if you don’t want to use their rules, it’s probably worth picking up for all of the worldbuilding tables and ideas.</p><p><strong>Character Sheets</strong></p><p>There are character and ship sheets available in graphic format, but I thought I’d make them in a fillable PDF format. I’ve got A4 and US Letter versions for the ship sheet, and A5 and half-letter versions for the character sheet. I’ve added them to<a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/rpg-character-sheets-master-list/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> my page of character sheets</a>.</p> <a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_shipsheet_a4.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">lilliputian_shipsheet_a4</a><a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_shipsheet_a4.pdf" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Download</a> <a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_shipsheet_letter.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">lilliputian_shipsheet_letter</a><a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_shipsheet_letter.pdf" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Download</a> <a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_charsheet_a5.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">lilliputian_charsheet_a5</a><a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_charsheet_a5.pdf" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Download</a> <a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_charsheet_halfletter.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">lilliputian_charsheet_halfletter</a><a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/lilliputian_charsheet_halfletter.pdf" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Download</a> <p><a href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2024/05/08/lilliputian-a-review-and-fillable-character-sheets-for-a-fantasy-seafaring-rpg/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2024/05/08/lilliputian-a-review-and-fillable-character-sheets-for-a-fantasy-seafaring-rpg/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/tag/character-sheets/" target="_blank">#CharacterSheets</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/tag/free-stuff/" target="_blank">#FreeStuff</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/tag/lilliputian/" target="_blank">#Lilliputian</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/tag/osr/" target="_blank">#OSR</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/tag/review/" target="_blank">#Review</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://polyhedralnonsense.com/tag/rpg/" target="_blank">#RPG</a></p>