Glint (beta v1)

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One-and-a-half years later...

Look, I thought I might become a blogger... It didn't happen. I published 3 posts on my in-development game Glint, and then it evolved so dramatically - through playtesting - that I realized the format of piecemealing the rules out over time wasn't going to be effective.

So what? I'm not a blogger!

But maybe I made a game that someone will steal something from. Here is Glint. Enjoy!

Ok, Ok... A little more preamble. What is in that PDF is not a marketable package. That's why it's free. It's missing treasure tables, it's missing a bestiary, there's no starting adventure, there's no attached setting. What you are getting is Character Creation, Advancement, Inventory, Combat, Magic, and light procedures for Dungeon Crawling and Wilderness Exploration.

In its current iteration, the game resides within the Odd-like family, but you'll find inspirations from all across the indie-rpg sphere. I wouldn't be surprised if some called it a Nimble hack as well. Nimble wasn't a huge influence during development, but the combat system did end up with exploding damage dice. Because Nimble came first, I've gone ahead and stolen some of the language so people can pick up on it a bit faster. So, don't be surprised when you see "Primary Die" pop up.

I made Glint for me and my players. It's still WIP, but we've had a lot of fun with it. It's been my primary system for over two years. I hope you find something you like in it.

What's the pitch?

Disclaimers done, why would you run Glint?
  • Classless - Characters are primarily defined by their Inventory. With additional layers of specialization coming from a-la-carte Skills and Feats.
  • Medium Crunch - The game was designed for Zone-based combat. Positioning, Status Effects, HP, and Weapon Types are all tracked and are all impactful. It would be hard to run larger combats in full Theater of the Mind, but detailed battle maps are not required at all. Combat math isn't as flat as other odd-likes. Expect some numeric growth and complexity growth as Characters level up.
  • Attrition Based - Inventory is tracked with a diablo-style grid. Supplies are tracked to place pressure on the players. I'm currently using Google Sheets to support online play. Download a copy of the character sheet here. If you only play in-person, you will need to set aside some arts-and-crafts time or pray that the game becomes so popular that I need to crowd-fund a box set or develop an app.
  • Snappy Resolution - Ability Checks are 1d6 roll at-or-under an Attribute. Rolling to hit and rolling for damage are combined into one roll. Turns in combat usually have a few extra things to roll for. However, in my experience, combat stays pretty dynamic and resolves in about 3 rounds on average. The first few combats will take extra time as you grok the rules.
  • Flexible Magic - Magic is closest to Whitehack. You simply tell the GM what you want to do with the Glyphs (magic words) you possess and then roll to see if it happens. It's a high trust system, but I hope there's enough guidance to keep players from becoming too silly and empower the GM to make fair rulings. I think this will be the most divisive part of the game. Some people will love the flexibility, others will scoff.

My promise to you.

I make no promises! I'm just plopping this out there. Are the rules going to keep changing? Yes! Are those links going to stay active forever? I don't know! Why does it look like it was written in Excel? It was written in Excel! I'm an accountant, what do you want from me!?

Parting Words

  • The 25 Magical Trinkets in character creation come from lots of OSR sources. I don't think any of them are from paid products. I'll pull it down if I've done a poor job curating. 
  • You're going to find rough edges and mistakes; this isn't a professional product. Excel doesn't have a grammar checker, lol!
  • I'd love to answer any questions about the game if you have them. If even one idea gets picked up and used, that would be very cool for me.
- Jordan Wood

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