Brave Old World
Brave Old World is a role-playing game where two or more players create a story by having a structured conversation. You play with a couple of six-sided dice, some paper, and your imagination.
Brave Old World is a game about asking questions.
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Who is your adventurer?
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Why are they with the party?
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Where is the dragon’s secret lair?
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Is the mayor’s daughter really planning to burn down the town mill?
Requirements
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One six-sided die. Better: two. Best: two per person.
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A writing utensil and paper. Best: a pencil and a few sheets per person.
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Two players. More is better. Four to six is best.
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One to four hours. Two is typical.
Roles
In Brave Old World, one player is the narrator and the others are adventurers.
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The narrator guides the story: describes situations, portrays the world, and presents consequences.
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The adventurers work together as a party: they explore, act, and make decisions.
How to Play
Play proceeds like a conversation:
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The narrator describes where the party is and what is happening around them.
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An adventurer describes what they do.
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If what they do is risky, they roll.
When you roll
When an adventurer takes a risk, roll two six-sided dice, add the results, and apply any relevant modifiers (from skills or supplies, if you are using those supplementary rules).
Interpreting the roll
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10 or more (10+): you succeed at what you tried.
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7 through 9 (7–9): you succeed, but with a cost or consequence.
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6 or less (6−): you fail, and something is going to happen.
You can play Brave Old World using only the rules above. Everything below is optional and intended to add depth without changing the basic structure.
Supplementary Rules
The supplementary rules are a grab-bag. Use any combination you like.
Skills
When an adventurer takes a risk, their personal skills may influence the result.
Skillfulness
Mechanically, a skill contributes one of the following modifiers to the roll:
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−2
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−1
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+1
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+2
Use these labels as guidance:
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+1: familiar, a knack
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+2: knowledgeable, adept, exceptional
A skill may be broad (“magic”) or narrow (“swimming”). The table above is the whole rule: choose the modifier that fits what the group agrees is true about the adventurer.
Example skill list
This is an example list, not a required canonical list:
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acrobatics
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investigation
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magic
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covert
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swimming
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dancing
Equipment and Supplies
Instead of tracking many individual items, the party’s resources can be described as supplies:
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a lot of supplies
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some supplies
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a few supplies
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basically no supplies
Supplies matter when an adventurer wants to produce a specific item from their inventory.
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A lot of supplies
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If the party has a lot of supplies, an adventurer may roll. On a success (10+ or 7–9), they find the item they were searching for in their inventory.
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Some supplies
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If the party has some supplies, the adventurer rolls at −1.
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A few supplies
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If the party has a few supplies, the adventurer rolls at −2.
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Basically no supplies
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If the party has basically no supplies, the adventurer rolls with no modifier, but any success produces an item that is:
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similar to what they wanted, and
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(at the narrator’s discretion) unsuited for the purpose for which it was intended.
This means “success” still advances play, but scarcity changes what success looks like.
Conflict Resolution
Sooner or later, players will disagree about what is valid in the story: whether an action is plausible, whether a new skill is justified, whether an item should reasonably be available, and so on.
Brave Old World resolves these conflicts through consensus:
All the people playing must agree that something is valid.
This most often comes up when a player claims a new skill or equipment and not all players agree that it’s reasonable.
If consensus can’t be reached quickly, consider:
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rephrasing the claim more narrowly,
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adding a risk roll and letting the outcome shape what is accepted,
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or choosing a different action and moving forward.