Ethnis Lite RPG
Introduction
Ethnis Lite is the condensed spirit and ruleset of the Ethnis Core RPG, optimized for narrative roleplay adventures within the Ethnis Universe. It uses FUDGE dice for play, and requires only that and some Ethnis sheets.
Ethnis Lite is being developed with live play, World Anvil, and play-by-post all in mind.
How you can help
There's high costs associated with a project like Ethnis in terms of art, business fees, promotion, and production. It boils down to time and money, and we can always use help with both.
Tell your friends about us and subscribe to us on Patreon, and we will put your efforts to good use!
We are going to make Ethnis no matter what, but the love and resources given to us by our fans drives us and makes Ethnis a reality sooner.
Starting the Adventure
In Ethnis, campaign and character creation is a group activity. Session 0 of every Campaign involves everyone working together to define what they want from the campaign and designing their characters.What do you need to play?
Dice
Fudge Dice to be Specific. These Dice are 6 sided, with 2 sides blank, 2 sides with '-', and 2 sides with '+'. Ethnis Lite requires having at least 8 of these dice.Character Sheet
Ethnis Lite's character sheets are all available on World Anvil under the Ethnis Lite RPG system, you can also print them out for use away from the computer.A Grid
This one is optional, but if you want to keep track of player and npc positioning, a grid either on paper or digital can help.Creating the Narrator Character
Why should players get to have all the fun of making a character? Narrators get to make a character as well, as much a persona to don as a guide rail for how the campaign is to be run. In a nutshell, a Narrator should personify the Genre that the game becomes, and reinforce the tone of the play.
1: Collaborate Desires
To create a Narrator, first gather everyone and review what Themes, Tone, and Trials everyone wants to see in the game. Have everyone, Narrator included, write a prioritized list of three things they want from each, then discuss. Combine the lists together and pare them down to 2 Tones, 3 Themes, and 4 Trials—this will become the basis of how the Narrator approaches the design of the Campaign.2: Narrator Abilities
Next, comb through the Narrator Abilities and choose 3 of the Abilities which align with the Tones, Themes, and Trials everyone has agreed upon. Announce which abilities you have taken.3: Personality
From this, built the personality of the Narrator. This determines how they approach scenarios and what they can do to interact with the party. Personifying your Narrator helps you fall into the role of Game Master, and brings you into the act of play as well.Tone
The tone of the story is the composure with which it's told.Upbeat • Grim • Gritty • Hopeful • Somber • Melodramatic • Subtle
Themes
The themes are the sort of narrative arcs you would like to explore within a game. They are the emotional motive of the story.Sacrifice • Family • Expression of Self • Exploring the Unknown
Trials
The sorts of events the party would like to have happen. Not everyone wants heavy combat, not everyone wants politics.Combat • Puzzles • Negotiations • Survival • Dungeoneering • Vehicular Combat
Player: Creating your Character
A Character is born a Sophont within a Provenance, raised by Banner and bearing a Mantle. It is this background which informs the Stats they grew up with, and what Gear they utilize.1: Building Your Backstory
Choose a Sophonce, Provenance, Banner, and a Mantle from those available to the setting you're playing in.Narrator: Higher-Level Campaigns
If you want to start off the Party with more history and power, give them more Leveling Tokens to spend.Have the Players tell a small story for each Level Token Spent; a Level represents experience, make them tell you about their experiences!
Sophont
What Sophont you choose affects your starting Attributes, Traits, and Abilities, and may change how characters in the world view and treat you.Choose a Sophont
Provenance
Your Provenance is where you hail from. Hub worlds are the most common, but space stations and colonies crop up as well. Your Provenance determines a starting Ability and Value.Banner
Your Banner is the major societal influence you grew up within. Each comes with its own unique societal codes and philosophies. Your Banner determines a starting Ability and Value.Mantle
Your Mantle is your chosen Profession. There are many to choose from, from the laborious, to the dangerous, to the academic. Your Mantle determines some of your available Abilities.Choose a Mantle
Stats
Every Character is given a selection of Skill Points to spend on Skills and Attributes. These complement their Abilities and are how they make their Skill checks to complete actions.Spend your Skill Points
You begin the game with 3 points to spend across your skills. You may spend each to either upgrade an existing skill bonus by + (up to a maximum of +++) or to define a new Skill. A Skill may never exceed +++.
Gear
Every Character is given a selection of Plot Points to spend on acquiring Gear. Gear includes weapons, armor, vehicles, and augments, and affects all aspects of play.Spend your Gear Points
You begin the game with 5 points to spend across your Gear. Refer to the Gear Catalogue for more information on how to use and acquire gear.
2: Calculating Your Stats
Your stats are calculated from your Attributes. Here is the attributes and what they do.UBS: Increases attack damage, carrying capacity, and stamina
LBS: Increases attack damage, carrying capacity, and stamina
VIT: Increases stamina and Damage Resistance
RFX: Turn order
PER: Passive spot check, observation, memory
MTP: How much mana you have
NRV: Mental Health
Damage Resist
Lowers the damage of incoming attacksVitality (Minimum 0)
Fatigue
Threshold before exhaustion affects checksVIT + UBS + LBS +RFX
Sanity
How much mental strain you can handle10 + NRV
Encumbrance
What you can carry overall, and in handUBS + LBS
Meta
Your reserve of meta2*MTP (Minimum 0)
The Adventure
Conflict Scenarios
Scenarios are how Ethnis handles conflict. Whenever a challenge rises—a long voyage through a lush jungle, a firefight between space pirates, a fiery debate over the fate of a prisoner—the outcome is determined through Scenarios. They are resolved using the Narrative Dice and Narrator Discretion.
Scenarios break down into Rounds of about 5 seconds each, wherein players progress through 3 Phases. When the event which triggered the Scenario has been dealt with, the final round continues until all characters have acted.
Determining Turn Order
Turn order is determined by RFX from highest to lowest. If two Belligerents have the same RFX, players take precedence. If all else fails, settle by dice, coin toss, or fist fight.Rounds
Each round is 5 seconds long. Each active participant—those can can make actions and choices, regardless of whether or not they are a player—is a Belligerent. Their turns are resolved first, then the Narrator takes the remaining dice for their own turn.1) Belligerent Turns
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Ante
Everyone indicates how many dice they will throw by placing that many dice before them. Once everyone had committed, they throw their dice together. These dice become their check pool for the rest of the round, and will be used for actions and reactions. You Ante even if the Scenario resolves in a single round. Action
Starting with the Belligerent with the highest Reflex and working to the Belligerent with the least, everyone takes their Actions and the Narrator resolves them. You may choose to Hold your Turn instead when yours comes around. While holding, you may interject at the beginning of another Character’s Turn and take yours first, so long as their Reflex is lower. You do not have to play your entire pool, but if you are targeted you must use your dice in defense.
Action Types
Partials
Invoking Abilities • Reloading • Restoring Charge • Using Items • Swapping Weapons• CommunicationChecks
Casting • Movement • Attacking • Analyzing Evidence • Climbs • Using Complicated ObjectsSaves
Spell countering • Parrying Attacks • Dodging Traps • Veiling Motive • Shrouding a Spell2) Player Upkeep
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After all Belligerents have taken their turn, Players move their unused dice to the center of the table. This becomes the Narrator's Pool, which is used to invoke their abilities in their turn.
3) Narrator’s Turn
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The Narrator uses the Narrator's Pool to take their own actions. These actions are the Abilities they purchased during Narrator Creation and whenever they have leveled up. These allow them to spice up the encounter with bonuses or maluses.
Enemy belligerents do not take their turn at this time. Their turn was during the Belligerent Turns.
4) Round Upkeep
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All dice are returned to their owners and the next round begins with the same turn order.
Resolving Checks
The Ethnis Lite Ruleset uses Narrative Dice to resolve Conflicts. Before you make your check you must first determine the Factors—the things which may affect the check for the better or the worse. This includes: Environmental Factors, Skill Factors, and Oppositional Factors.- Environmental Factors come from the outside world and extenuating factors.
- Skill Factors Skill factors or how the Players Skills may add-to or detract from the check.
- Oppositional Factors are the Skill checks opposing the person making the check.
A Malus is any negative adjective which can be applied to the description of a situation
A Bonus is any positive adjective which can be applied to the description of a situation
A Bonus is any positive adjective which can be applied to the description of a situation
Determining Outcome
Outcomes are what happens when you roll the dice. The dice serve as an element of chance and chaos to overcome or supplement with skill, and because they are Narrative serve more as guideline than rule.
| Value | Description | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| +8 | Blessed | Nothing short of a miracle just occured, shutting down the opposition. |
| +6 | Enthusiastic Push | A weakness is exploited, a great call is made. Massive Progress is achieved. |
| +4 | Gain Momentum | Substantial progress towards the goal is made. Introduce a Bonus which cannot be removed. |
| +2 | Gain Ground | You make no progress on your goal, but introduce another Bonus to the situation. |
| 0 | Gridlocked | You make no progress on your goal, except perhaps to stall the effect of it another round |
| -2 | Lose Ground | You make no progress on your goal, and introduce another Malus to the situation. |
| -4 | Solid Setback | The goal is pushing back, careful planning is needed to recover. Introduce a Malus which cannot be resolved. |
| -6 | Devastating Blow | Your goal plays against your strength, causing massive setbacks and making recovery difficult. |
| -8 | Cursed | A terrible set of circumstances has played out. The goal is cursed, mortal threats loom. |
Trauma
It is inevitable that your adventures will take their toll, leaving you exhausted, wounded, or insane. These, collectively, are known as Trauma. How these affect you, how you handle them, and what the long term effects are will differ per character, per trauma, and per situation. Make your choices wisely and invest into your safety, as a bad turn of events can can end in broken limb, shattered mind, or catatonic exhaustion. Read about Health, Sanity, and Stamina to learn more.
The toll of adventure is carved from the minds and bodies of its adherents. Everyone, from faceless commoner to mighty Sovereign, bears the scars of their trials. Some trials punish the body with loss of flesh and limb, others punish the mind with the scars of trauma.
Downtime
Downtime is broken into half-hour chunks during which the party Travels, Rests, or works on Projects. This is also a good opportunity to look more closely at your character and consider spending Plot on upgrades if you're in a good position to do so.Travel
In all adventurers it is inevitable that there is a bit of travel that needs to be done.Whether it's a quick drive across town or a massive trek through the stars, travel is what tends to be the limiter on how much downtime you have.
Rest
As described in the Stamina article, you can take this as an opportunity to kick up your heels and catch some much-needed shut-eye.Whether it's a few minutes or a few hours, it can make all the difference to success.
Projects
Projects are undertakings of Skill and resources done to create, upgrade, or repair something.Projects are extended Checks played similarly to normal Contests, and can take anywhere from five minutes to several days ingame.
Spend Plot
You can take this time to spend Plot on Levels and Gear. For more information on how to do that, read the next section!Remember, in order to spend Plot you have to tell a small story justifying whatever you've purchased. Use those creative juices!
Progression and Reward
Narrator: Beats, Chapters, and Books
While it isn't required, we organizing your game into Beats, Chapters, and Books. It is a helpful way to think about your Campaign, keep things moving, and provide an ebb and flow on how you give your tables rewards. It only really works if your Campaign has a goal.Beats
Alternatively: Scene
A beat is equivalent to an unbroken scene in a show. Any time there's a fade to a new scenario or a major lull in storytelling, that's a beat. They should take 5-10 minutes to resolve.
Breaking your game into Beats, each with just one or two goals, can help keep your game focused and on-track. This might be a long fight, clearing a room in a dungeon, or so forth.
The reward of a Beat might be finding minor loot (like Materials), learning a useful bit of information, unlocking a new area, or making a new friend.
Chapters
Alternatively: Episode, Act
Chapters are cohesive collections of interrelated Beats all working together to form an arc in a story. Any time Beats are working together towards a climax, that's a Chapter. They should take 5-6 hours to resolve.
Breaking your game into Chapters with one major climax, creates a point of narrative tension you can pivot on. This might be a dungeon with a climactic boss fight or a harrowing investigation and its results.
The reward of a Chapter should be a Plot point.
Books
Alternatively: Season, Movie
Books are collections of Chapters. They are higher-order major questlines towards a major known goal. Any time there's a looming threat of major plot, that's a Book. They should take 40-50 hours to resolve.
A Book might be stopping a big bad or stopping one of the 7 Princes of hell on the way to fight lucifer in Book 8. Usally there's a time skip and some personal progression between Books.
The reward of a Chapter should be 5 Plot points.
Some Campaigns might go onto a higher order than that. A plural of Books is a Saga.
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