Creatures & Commoners, Barely/Explained
edit 11-2-23: This game is now a complete, laid out, and properly illustrated little boo called CRACK!. Grab it for free along with a ton of mini-supplements over at the Merry Mushmen’s website.
This game is released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike licence (CC BY 2.0) The rules are incomplete by design (and also it’s almost 1am). Make up whatever you need, possibly looking at old editions of the Ampersand Brand and the games they inspired. 
Delve into dungeons, run from dragons
In this game, you play a character adventuring in a world prepared and portrayed by the Referendary (ref). They set up a situation and you act on it as if you were there. The ref tells you what happens based on their prep, their knowledge of the world, and possibly a roll of the dice.
You are a commoner
Whether you were born dirt poor or lost it all, you are now what people generously call an adventurer: someone desperate enough to look for treasure in deadly, creature infested places. First roll three regular dice (we call them d6s) and add them to determine your scores in:
- STRonkness: your raw muscular power
- braINTellect: your education and mental ability
- WISE-itude: your intuition and force of will
- DEXtrousability: your speed, agility, and manual precision
- CONstamina: your physical endurance and resistance
- CHAttyness: your presence and leadership
These scores should give you an initial idea of what your character is good at, and help you decide if you want to be a:
- CLERK of the Gods: good at calligraphy and fighting, able to cast evil out and perform miracles
- DWARF: a sturdy bearded dude from fantasy and myth
- ELF: pointy eared and good at magic as well as fighting
- FIGHTING-PERSON: weapons and armour and lack of regard for your physical wellbeing
- Ħ𝕠βⓑ𝕚ţ: sort of like a gnome farmer, jolly and of solid appetite, surprisingly sneaky
- MAGICKER: casting spells in robes and a pointy hat
- THIEVERY CONSULTANT, locksmith, burglar, etc. Decent at illicit activities, bad at everything else
HP (health peak): a score that represents your lifeblood, luck, and general ability to survive. Being wounded reduces your HP (we call that taking damage) and a zero HP you’re dead. You roll a die for your HP depending on your job (d8 for dwarfs and fighting-persons; d6 for clerks, elfs, and sʇᴉqqoɥ; d4 for magickers and thievery consultants)
So, rules
SPELLS: Magickers start with one spell. Make up a name that sounds cool. It is inscribed on your spellbook. Find more spells to expand your spellbook. You can only cast as many spells per day as you have levels, and if you have more in your spellbooks, you must decide which ones you memorise every morning. It’s a whole mess; if I were you I’d try and get the ref to use a simpler rule.
MIRACLES: Clerks of the gods can ask for a miracle a number of times per day equal to their level minus one. So zero times at first level. Tough. If the miracle seems reasonable enough, it happens.
DOING SHIT: When the ref doesn’t know what happens next, they will ask you to roll a die. You can use twenty-sided dice (d20s) because they’re fun to roll. A good way to know if an action is succesful is to try and roll under one of your six scores.
KILLING SHIT: This can be as detailed as you and your friends decide. We recommend you just roll under STR for melee attacks and DEX for ranged attacks. Succesful rolls mean your opponent loses d6 HP, while failures mean you’re probably the one getting damaged.
OPTIONAL KILLING RULES: You can also use an Arbitrary Calculation (AC) number to represent how hard characters and creatures are to hit. AC would be based on armour worn (say 12 for leather to 16 for full plate) with modifiers for very high or very low DEX. Restrict who can wear the heaviest armour tho. If you need to decide who acts first, have both sides roll a d6 or something. Different weapons can also have different damage dice. A pocket knife is d4 and an oversized sword is d10, you get the idea.
EXPLORING DANGEROUS PLACES should entail some rolls to avoid getting lost, determine if you run into wandering critters, if someone is suprised, and what everybody’s disposition is when you bump into each other. Having an idea of how much ground you cover while exploring and how fast you can run away is also a good idea. Maybe tie that to how much shit your carry? You should also keep track of your basic consumables such as torches and food. No one likes to go hungry or have to grope their way out of a haunted tomb once their last torch is used up.
CREATURES is what we call everything and everyone you are bound to encounter in your explorations. They also have HP, weapons, and special abilities. If the ref doesn’t know how a creature would react to meeting you, they will roll 2d6 - hope for a high result. All creatures can see perfectly in the dark. Don’t ask.
FLUNKIES are very useful if you can afford them. From a link kid to carry your lantern to a whole unit of mercenary crossbowmen, they may save your life. Just make sure you treat them fairly and pay on time or they’ll go work for the orcs.
GETTING BETTER AT IT requires you accumulate Expiatory Pasta (XP), mostly by recovering treasure from the unknown and putting it to a good use. With a sufficient number of XP, your reach the next level and Get Better At It. Notably, you get to roll your HP die again and add the result to your health peak.