Select a chapter above to begin.

• CHARACTER SHEETS

ColophonIllustration - Rob Matthews, 2022
Introductory Ordeal written by Jared Kimbrell, 2023
Additional Writing - Jeb Alan Rosebrook and Jared Kimbrell.Typeface is Syne Mono - Bonjour Monde, Lucas Descroix, 2017The Pathetic Appendix: Alighieri The Inferno - Bergman The Seventh Seal - Buehlman Between Two Fires - Bullington The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart - Boorman Excalibur - Carrol Alice in Wonderland - Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales -Egerkrans, Vaesen - Eisenstein, Vasilev Alexander Nevsky - German, Hard to Be a God - Gilliam Jabberwocky - Herzog, Auguirre, the Wrath of God - Lang, Die Nibelungen - Moorcock The Eternal Champion - Platiboo Vermis - Poe The Cask of Amontillado - Poe, Corman The Masque of the Red Death - Shakespeare Hamlet, The Tempest - Yanes Alatriste

PLAYTEST version - SUMMER 2024
Playtesters
Josh Dunham, Chris Lazar, Nick Lazar (Playtest Dealer), Tyler Lindsay, Dylan McCusker, Stephen Ngo, Jacob Rich

© Delvers Guild 2024
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.Designed by Calen Heydt
Chicago, IL

SETUP

I. DeckOne player shuffles a standard deck of 52 French-suited playing cards. This player is the dealer.Other players not playing as the dealer create delvers.
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II. DiceTo create your delver, assemble six dice:
d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, & d20.Think of this dice pool abstractly as your entire character. The dice pool defines your capabilities and state of being.The number of sides a die has is considered its strength.During the game, you will roll one or more of your own dice against a difficulty set by the dealer. Dice that roll a 1 are considered Pathetic and removed from your dice pool.
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III. LotYour delver had a lot in life, before you found them.Each lot comes with a craft you know, a fealty that compels your deeds, some gold, a useful item, and a deadly weapon.Roll one d6 on the table below and record the results.

Equipped Dice
To begin, delvers may choose one die from their pool to equip their starting weapon or forego a weapon altogether.Armor, shields, weapons, and torches are objects that require at least one equipped die to wield. Items held this way are considered equipped. Otherwise, the item is held in your inventory with other useful but benign objects.A grimoire holds a single spell to start, but can hold an unlimited amount, should the caster discern more magic.Spells include the mystic rite, beckon, and gothrid’s torch. Their uses and methods are buried in the magic chapter. If more spells are what you seek, you will have to dig them up.Deeds
Each lot comes with an intrinsic deed. They are listed here:A Cutpurse may swap one pity for another, but must keep it.
A Miser can fill weapon, torch, or armor slots with chests.
A Troubadour starts by giving dice to up to five hirelings.
A Brigand uses armor, shields, arrows, & torches as weapons.
A Quack, if pitiful, can alter dice without visiting altars.
A Straggler can hold unlimited pity.
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IV. CraftYour craft is your only real skill. It might save your life.Distraction is expertise in the art of diverting attention.
Forgery is flawless imitation of notes, heraldry, or seals.
Sympathy cuts to the heart of even the most stubborn foe.
Fisticuffs is the art of combat without steel to aid you.
Remedy is the conjured brew, elixir, or medicinal potion.
Excavation reveals the quickest ways to the darkest depths.No matter the situation, you can perform your craft by making a roll with your strongest die. On a 1, the die is considered pathetic and removed from your dice pool. When using your craft, any roll better than pathetic is enough to succeed, but when a pathetic die is cast, your craft fails.Narrate failure and try again if you must. You can keep attempting your craft as long as you have dice to roll.
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V. FealtyYour fealty is an oath by which you are bound. It ties you to a faction in the world, allowing for the use of altars.To begin, you are a delver in The Delvers’ Guild. Write either phrase in the field for fealty and add a torch and a spade to your inventory, compliments of the guild.As the game plays out, you may take on new titles or you may remain a delver, even as you traverse The Pathetic Realm, find loot, make allies, slay foes, and swear new fealties.Being in The Delvers’ Guild means your altar is any place where the dead are entombed, as well as basic holy shrines.
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VI. IdentityDescribe yourself and roll once on the table below for your name. Optionally, roll once again for the late noble house you once served. You may also choose at will from the table or bring your own name and house to the game and its world.Delvers who shared the same noble house are not necessarily related, but are likely to share a history, for good or ill.

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Playing Without a Lot - Barbaric DelversPlaying without a lot allows you to start out stronger but utterly deprived of abilities, gold, items, or weapons.They will call you barbarian - uncouth, unwashed, and altogether uncivilized. However, you begin with more dice.Roll one d6 on the table below.

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VII. Plight
Roll once for every three delvers at the table.

Here Ends Setup
Per Terram Ad Infinitum

• CHARACTER SHEETS

Illustrated by Rob Matthews

TAP IMAGES TO PROGRESS TO THE NEXT CHAPTER

GAMEPLAY

The dealer will throw you into a world of peril and pity.
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Peril
Roll your dice to save yourself from peril.With as many dice as you deem worthy, roll a total above a difficulty set by the dealer- to avoid harm, traverse dangerous ground, or do just about anything else where failure is perilous. You should only roll when in danger.Example:
To thwart the local constabulary, the delvers were made aware of some very powerful potions, created by a long-dead wretch that lived up in the church steeple.“None have dared retrieve the old crone’s corpse, or her accursed elixirs. The climb is impossible, you see, what with the rotting wood, housing several hives of wasps. There are no steps and the heavy bell is held by a thinning rope.”In this, the dealer can see many opportunities for peril. As play resumes, she has the players roll to navigate these dangers, should they wish to prevail without wound or death.
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Rolls & Risk
You are not particularly skilled in anything other than your craft. In fact, delvers are uniquely unequipped to salvage the ruins of the realm. Every roll of the dice represents the full measure of your will to press onward through peril.The dealer should only ask for a roll in the most dire times when failure would lead to grievous injury, or death.Which dice you roll comes down to what you are willing to risk. Roll a 1 and the die is destroyed. The die is considered Pathetic and is removed from your dice pool.LOSE ALL YOUR DICE TO KILL YOUR CHARACTER.Think of every individual die as a small part of yourself. The casting of a Pathetic Die is treated as something erosive to your body or mind. If you lose a die, perhaps that part of you was always missing.Rolling a 1 does not mean you fail, necessarily. You can lose a Pathetic Die and still have a strong enough total to resolve the roll successfully. In this instance, all seated may agree to a success at a cost. The dealer narrates their action as a success, but a detriment of some kind is added to increase tension. The result of 1, while indeed pathetic, still counts toward your total.Dice Destruction
Place your Pathetic Dice off to the side, in a pouch, in the center of the table, or with the dealer. Fear not, they may yet return to your pool, in time.
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Darkness & Blight
Without a source of light, like a torch or lantern, darkness closes in and you are subject to Blight. Those Blighted must treat any die that rolls a 1 or 2 as Pathetic. Tenacious, hungry, Blight stalks in places where darkness has lain unscathed for too long. When the darkness starves, it leaches on trespassers. Light is your only protection.Magic seeps into open wounds and flesh infected by venom. Treat infection like Blight, a leach upon your mortal coil.Blight stacks in every new area until dispelled by light. After treating 1 or 2 as Pathetic, a new stack of Blight demands a 3 be counted, and so on.
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Area Difficulty
Each new area encountered by delvers has its own difficulty.Example:
The players have spent the day learning more about the potions they found in the church steeple. The apothecary has been amiable, but the townsfolk regard the delvers as crazed pilgrims. The dealer tells them that this is a safer place than most, as long as they keep the apothecary happy. She sets the difficulty for the apothecary shop at 6. Any and all rolls herein need to beat this difficulty to succeed.Some time later that night, the shopkeeper tells the delvers of a thriving rathskeller underneath the apothecary. This hidden tavern is a place for scoundrels to lay low, so the odds of a knife in the back are high. The delvers are on edge, alert, but overcome with the feeling they are unprepared. For what? They don’t know, and that’s the point, they’re in the underbelly now. The dealer decides that the difficulty for any perilous action taken in this rathskeller, whether it be carousing, thieving, hiding, fleeing - all of it is rolled against a difficulty of 15.
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Abandon All Hope
Dice may become weak and few, things may look grim. Perhaps you cannot always rely on yourself. Maybe it's best to quit while you're ahead. That's up to you, just remember:Eventually, you will be gone.
Pity is all that can save you.
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Pity
Pity marks a moment when Fate took regretful notice of your meddling, deciding to bequeath unto you magical boons.Draw a card from the deck each time you lose a die. These cards make up your hand of Pity. Possession of these cards does not keep you alive should your dice run out. However, should you meet an untimely end, your spirit will remain.Pity can be played in three ways:- to lower difficulty
- to recover dice
- to perform ritesTo Lower Difficulty
Pity can be played to lower the difficulty of a roll by the number on the card. Pity may be played in combination to lower a roll’s difficulty further but all Pity must be played before rolling. Court cards cannot lower difficulty.To Recover Dice
By the light of a candle at an Altar, you can play your Pity to recover lost dice. You may even end up with more dice than before. The numbers on the cards tell you the strength of your recovery, and can be combined to great effect:Tithe a 2 and a 4 to recover a d6 to your pool. Give two 4s to recover a d8. To tithe is to surrender Pity to the flame.To Perform Rites
Court cards serve as the keys to unlocking real magic. Only with the right hand of cards can hidden wisdom be revealed.After rites have been performed, altars crumble to dust.

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Pitiful Characters
Once Pity has been played, it leaves your hand. If your hand of Pity exceeds 3 cards, you are considered Pitiful.You have not played your Pity and some say you resemble the undead. While Pitiful, treat the number of cards in your hand as your new threshold for Pathetic Dice. If you hold 4 cards, any die that rolls 4 or under is considered Pathetic.Example:
Josh has a hand of 3 Pity cards. They cast a Pathetic Die and gain a fourth card. Josh is now Pitiful. With a hand of 4 cards, Josh's dice will be destroyed on any roll under 5.

INVENTORY

Equipped & Unequipped Items
Delvers can hold anything as long as they can justify it.
However, weapons, armor, shields, and torches are slotted as equipped items. Your inventory is for unequipped items.Equipped items have usage dice of the player’s choosing.Some items like armor or shields may come with intrinsic dice that the dealer will hand over to serve as the item’s usage die, while others demand dice from your own pool.
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Weapons & Ammunition
There are two slots for weapons.Ranged weapons fill one slot, but require ammunition to be of use. A quiver of arrows, for example, fills one slot.When casting Pathetic Dice to attack or defend, the equipped item breaks unless unbreakable, in which case it is dropped.Armor & Shields
There is one slot for armor.
When casting a Pathetic die to defend, the armor breaks.There is one slot for a shield.
When casting a Pathetic die to defend, the shield breaks.Torches & Lanterns
There is one slot for your chosen source of light.
When casting a Pathetic die as an attack or when its light wanes, the torch burns out entirely. A lantern’s light can be shielded to avoid detection. Unlike a torch, the light can be extinguished and reignited without destroying a die. The die is instead returned to your pool until a new die is equipped to the lantern.
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Adding Usage Dice
Weapons, armor, torches, and ammunition can be improved if taken to a blacksmith or magic crafter. It may be that fabled weapons of yore carry more than one, two or even three dice. A torch can be improved to a lantern, or even be imbued with magic, allowing for more dice to be packed in.

WEALTH

Wealth can be spent for items, knowledge, magic, and hirelings, but looting gold comes with a roll of dice. The dice rolled cannot be equipped to an item in a slot.Finding Gold
When gold is found, any combined roll of your unequipped dice nets you gold in equal amount. This can lead a delver to perish in the pursuit of gold. If finding gold kills a delver, the gold is Cursed, as are any who dare take it.Chests
A chest can be carried in its own separate slot. Chests don’t have usage dice, but they do take up space, especially for a Miser, who can hold a chest in any slot, even choosing to fill every available slot with a chest. A Miser may also choose to assign a usage die to a chest, in order to wield it as a weapon. Rolling a Pathetic Die when attacking ensures it bursts into pieces, scattering its contents.Locked chests hold untold riches known only to the Dealer.Coins & Bribes
Gold is most commonly found in the shape of Coins, but the right amount can be counted as a Bribe. When you possess 100 coins, you can pool them into a bribe. When paying somebody with a bribe, you may roll your strongest die not already equipped in a slot. Any roll better than Pathetic ensures the bribed party is satisfied with their newfound gratuity.Delvers may only carry one bribe at a time.A chest may be used as a bribe. Doing so will always prove satisfactory to the recipient, even without a roll.

HIRELINGS

Offer gold or persuade non-player characters to recruit them in your struggles. The base difficulty for hiring help is 6.Rolling a 1 to recruit a hireling could entail any number of unexpected outcomes. Maybe a hidden blade is revealed and the would-be acolyte tries to make off with all your coin. Pathetic dice might represent the pain of rejection by a potential ally opting for solitude over companionship.Hireling Dice
When you recruit a hireling, the Dealer will give them a usage die to roll for everything. Casting a Pathetic die means they perish. The Troubadour can choose to hand over a die of their own to save a hireling, or bolster their defenses, given the die is not already equipped in a slot.A Troubadour’s hireling may have more than one usage die.The willing dismissal or murder of a hireling will destroy their die as readily as misplacement or deadly neglect.If the only die remaining in your pool is lent to your hireling, congratulations. You are now them.If you happen to survive, earn Pity and visit altars. Rekindle your dice pool and venture forth unto new perils.
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Hireling Behaviors
When the players run into a non-player character, roll on the table below to see how they might behave under your employ, with insight into their lot in life.Roll a d6 thrice. Your hireling is a…

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Hirelings have no house, but they have a name and age…

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Gold Cost
There is no default gold cost but hirelings who are not payed well are bound to betray you or simply desert you.When rolling hirelings on the table above:
The total number rolled is the hireling’s total fee, spread over one entire contract or paid up front, in full. A bribe is always enough to pay a hireling up front, but they are likely to demand more over time, depending on the ordeal. The promise of a chest may satisfy a hireling for one job.

COMBAT

A Scrum is carried out in Rounds, whereas a Duel is decided by a roll or series of rolls using a pool of hidden dice.
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Rounds of a Scrum
When a round begins, the combatant with the fewest dice will act first, followed by the combatant with the second fewest. Each round continues in this way, the order of action dependent on the size of each combatant’s dice pool.Combatants with an equal number of dice act simultaneously.Take note of who in the scrum has the fewest dice, round for round. Combatants will fight and fall, their capabilities changing with their dice pool. As the battle rages, the weak become desperate and are quick to action.Once per round, every combatant in the scrum can choose to perform two actions.Actions are thuslywise:
- Move
- Attack
- Defend
- Cast a spell
- Scour an area
- Meddle with an object
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Attack
To attack, roll the usage dice for your weapon of choice. If you are attacking while unarmed, roll your single weakest die. Brigands roll unarmed attacks with their single strongest die, as is the nature of their craft.A Brigand can use any equipped item to attack or defend.Pathetic Attacks
When casting a Pathetic Die to attack, the weapon breaks. Some weapons are unbreakable and are simply dropped on a 1.Unless surprised, enemies will always cast an opposed roll.
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The Opposed Roll
Combatants throw an opposed roll using the weakest die in their pool, unless they have an equipped item to defend with, trying to meet or beat the number thrown against them.Any Pathetic Dice are destroyed but not until all dice are added together to oppose the attack. Roll under the attack roll and lose your weakest die.Pathetic Defense
Losing Dice in combat represents further harm to your delver, be it physical or even psychological damage. It may be a traumatic severing of muscle and bone, or it may be fear, the smell of death close at hand. Combatants are encouraged to help narrate the twists and turns of battle.When casting a Pathetic die to defend, your defensive item breaks or your weakest die is lost if you are unprotected.Gridlock
Opposed rolls that tie simply move on to the next combatant. This represents a heated gridlock, in which no damage is dealt to either side. Narrate misses with flair, but be sure to move the game along at a pace conducive to fierce action.With few exceptions, combatants in gridlock cannot make opposed rolls or counter against attacks from combatants outside of gridlock.
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Distance & Defense
There are two distances in combat: melee and ranged.In melee, the attacker who misses loses their weakest die, representing a counter attack. In ranged combat, a missed attack simply misses.During a round of combat, a delver can choose to move to the appropriate distance for their weapon of choice and the dealer will help to describe or show their location. This allows for delvers to defend their fellows. The defend action can be taken to protect another delver, if both are at the same distance from the heart of the fight.Melee weapons that damage foes at range have a chance to be picked up off the ground or pulled from their flesh. Such weapons can even be used in an enemy’s dice pool. The best way to avoid your weapon being turned against you is to stick to ranged ammunition, which is almost useless on its own. A Brigand can use arrows in melee as daggers, however.
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Scrum Example:
The Attack -
To attack, Jared swings his zweihander using 3d12. The dice result in a 1, 3, and 6. The 1 is Pathetic, and destroyed. The dealer and Jared narrate the harm done to Jared in the sheer act of swinging at his foe. Perhaps Jared is enveloped in a misting jet of necrotic miasma, the death throes of his enemy. His two remaining dice add up to 9. He still adds the Pathetic Die, which brings his attack’s strength up to 10.The Defense -
If capable, Jared’s target throws an opposed roll in defense using its weakest die, unless it has armor or a shield. Pathetic Dice are promptly destroyed, harm is narrated, and the results are added in opposition to the attack. This foe has two dice remaining in its pool, a d8 and a d12. Neither dice are equipped as armor or a shield. With its lowest die, a d8, it cannot beat Jared’s 10. The foe is wounded as it loses its d8 and a shrill gasp erupts from its thorax. Its next defense will be stronger, as a d12 is all that remains.
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Duels
There are two combatants in a duel, each keeping their dice pool hidden. Simultaneously, the two reveal their method of attack in the form of a single die roll.In a duel, attacks are more focused but less flexible. Only one die may be rolled in opposition to the other.After attacks are rolled, the duelist with the lower roll must hand over their die to their opponent, and gain Pity. Ties go to the duelist with the weaker die, or if you’re in a spirited mood, the duelist with the most damning jape.The duelist with the higher roll decides if the duel is finished. If not, hidden rolls are made again and so on, until a victor is declared by fair play or grim fate.In a typical duel, only two fighters are pitched in combat. Intrusion by rogue opponents may shift a duel into a scrum, though duels have been known to involve multiple combatants.

MAGIC

The Schism
Long ago, a schism between two orders, the Wizened and the Verbatim, revealed magic to the world. Since then, no veil could conceal their power. The Verbatim believe that arcane scripture is a ledger into which every being engraves the composition of their soul. The Wizened are not so dogmatic.A war between order and chaos rages in the schism’s wake.Magic manifests thuslywise:
- Altars
- Blight
- Curse
- Monsters
- Potions
- Spells
- Undeath
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Altars
That which was given, a command unto the just
hath returned, a whisper on forked tongues.-The Grimorium VerbatimHoly sites sprang up long ago, established by the Verbatim, an order of scribes committed to the will of magic. Called Altars, these sites are scattered throughout the world at checkpoints deemed worthy of consecration.Candles
Until the schism, fire was thought to be nothing more than a quirk of nature, a component of life as intrinsic to survival as air, water, and the earth itself. No matter its true purpose, fire is the key ingredient to all known magic. Without a flame to guide it, magic cannot be yet harnessed.
For this reason, use of an altar demands a candle be lit. A brazier, hearth, or flambeaux is often affixed to an altar.Tithe
Delvers resting at altars can tithe Pity and adjust their dice pool. Casting dice against the difficulty of certain spells, hexes, incantations, or else-named powers can be practiced at altars, at the peril of all involved. Recipes for Potions can be consulted, but magic can retaliate, to turn even the most pious disciples into gruesome Monsters.Alter Dice
While at altars, you have the option to Alter dice. This means changing your dice pool to improve the state of your weapons, armor, shields, torches, hirelings, and scrolls.Recover Dice
You can use altars to tithe Pity in exchange for new dice. Give a 10 of Hearts for a d10, or a 4 of Diamonds and an 8 of Spades for a d12. You need not give all your Pity away, only the amount needed to adjust your dice to your liking.

Casting at Altars
On their own, Delvers are unlearned in magic and rely on altars to forge magic items, read scrolls, and charge runes.The Wizened have recorded their arts in various tomes that now lay strewn about the Pathetic Realm. If these Grimoire can be found, perhaps there can be a reawakening of magic.Bring books of magic to Altars to gain some insight into their inner workings. Perhaps a spell or two can be learned.The union of order and chaos is balance. Glimpsed at altars for only fleeting moments, these small miracles manifest in wondrous ways. Whatever the Verbatim intended altars to be, the power within can be harnessed in new ways when applied to the words of Wizened scholars. While the Wizened merely use magic, the Verbatim prefer to be used by magic, as it were; arcane inkwells at the tip of magic’s quill.Shreds of knowledge have been forged, traded, and lost in the years following the schism. There are few Scrolls left, but theirs is a terrible power, better left in darkness, for the mere comprehension of a scroll’s words is enough to wreak gruesome catastrophes. Better to burn than bury one.Of all enduring magic, none has proven more reliable than the most ancient of traditions. Olden Runes that lie unguarded in glade, cave, and lake, have been known to bestow mighty gifts to those with the will to wield them.Translating these totems of power may grant you abilities.
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Blight & Curse
Blight is a magical artifact, a parasite, malignant and festering. Some say it entered our realm with the schism. While blighted, rolls of 1 or 2 are considered Pathetic. This also means that while Pitiful, any roll considered Pathetic, such as 4 or under, is raised to 5, and so on.Blight will stack until it is dispelled by light, in the case of exposure to darkness. In the case of a miscast, only a successfully cast spell can dispel all stacks of blight.Whiled Cursed, Fate ignores you and you will gain no Pity from losing dice. There exist vanishingly few ways to remove blights and curses. Certain knowledge can be found and magic beings sought out - but the nature of their whereabouts is largely a mystery and heresies of their art are highly guarded behind a veil of secrecy. The old ways are protected by forces of Verbatim, while other methods are pursued by agents of the Wizened ones. Years of searching have yielded little, their quests endured to no avail, all but abandoned.

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Magic Retaliation
When casting Pathetic Dice in the service of magic, you will incur a Retaliation.Roll a d6 to determine the cost of your magical transgression. Even results destroy your dice pool, transforming the dice into Pity and rendering you Undead until your Pity can be tithed at an Altar.

UNDEATH

Heave; worm, newborn fly,
sanctify thy breath.
Gorge in barrow yonder, hie
riposte the scythe of death.-7th Benediction, Verbatim Rite
The Liturgies of Saint Maeve, Necromancer
Patron of WestenraUndead CharactersYou die when you are out of dice, however you may remain in your body, as long as you hold a hand of Pity. If you can claw your way back to an altar, perhaps you can be redeemed.The only thing that can bring you back are Pity cards, which can be spent at altars to live again.
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POTIONS

GAMEPLAY
Dice that roll 1 are Pathetic, and always destroyed.
When a Pathetic Die is cast, gain a card of Pity.Exposure to darkness imparts Blight, setting your threshold for Pathetic Dice higher by one strength.Blight stacks in each new area.
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INVENTORY
Carry unlimited Items.Weapons - 2 slots
Ammunition fills one slot.
Armor - 1 slot
Shield - 1 slot
Torch - 1 slotLanterns are extinguished & relit without destroying a die.
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WEALTH
Roll to discover gold. If finding gold kills a delver, the gold is cursed, as is anyone who picks up the gold.Bribe = 100 coins. Only one bribe can be held at a time.
Only one chest can be held at a time.A Miser can fill any slot with a chest.
Chests can be used as bribes without a roll.
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HIRELINGS
Hire help with your gold or your charms.
Hirelings claim a single die from your dice pool. A Troubadour can grant hirelings an extra usage die.
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COMBAT
The combatant with the fewest dice is first to act.Combatants fight during rounds of combat, with two actions each per round.
Actions:
- Move
- Attack
- Defend
- Cast a spell
- Scour and area
- Meddle with an itemAttack
Attack by rolling your weapon’s dice. Unarmed attacks always use your single weakest die. Brigands roll their single strongest die for unarmed attacks.Pathetic Dice are destroyed but are still added to the total.Defense
Unless surprised, the target of an attack will throw an opposed roll, trying to meet or beat the attacker's roll.Pathetic Dice are destroyed but are still added to the total.If the attacker’s roll is stronger, the defender loses their weakest die. If the attacker’s roll is weaker, they miss. In melee, the attacker is countered, losing their weakest die.
At range, the attacker is safe.If the attacker and defender tie, no damage is dealt. The two are in gridlock until the next round.Armor and a shields allow for stronger opposed rolls. Without them, opposed rolls are made using the defender’s single weakest die.
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MAGICA Pitiful Quack can alter dice at will.
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UNDEATH
When all you have left is Pity, you may remain in the game as Undead.A Straggler is nigh undead and can hold unlimited Pity.

The Pathetic Engine1. Characters are not made up of stats.
Rather, they are made up of a dice pool.(The default dice pool is a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20.)2. When failure is dangerous, dice are rolled against a task’s difficulty.(Dice are rolled only when the character is in danger.)3. Rolling a 1 destroys a die.
Characters die when their entire dice pool is destroyed.(Rare exceptions such as magic will serve the players’ fun.)

WILDERNESS

How shall I say
What wood that was! I never saw so drear,
so rank, so arduous a wilderness!
Its very memory gives a shape to fear.-The Inferno
Dante Alighieri
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Among the many perils of the old world - dangerous killers, stinking mobs, and warlords without remorse - remain a great many threats in the shadow of a hapless civilization. In this Pathetic Realm, all is wild and ruin.Can it be undone? They say no greater realm exists beyond the Seething Waters but that now drowned beneath its waves. Naught but echos return from that ocean.Our castle is hollow now. We are fed to biting wind and reeking tide, where the fish lie in spates of fallow harvest.Thegnwood is cursed beyond remedy. In all directions it lies like a bed of thorns with us at the center as if we were bait in a cage. Nothing comes out from the wood but tales of horrid, sorcerous filths. All fear a devilry without name.Non-Player Characters / Quick Build /
Decide how much damage the NPC deals. More dice means more damage. Think about the size of their dice pool as their difficulty level. This level can be adjusted by changing the type of dice that make up each individual foe.
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*Example Enemy
Dwargoyle
A lumbering stone warrior with hammer in hand.Dice Pool: d4, d6, 2d20
Armor: d20
Treasure Type: Recovery, Gold, Magic Item
Attack: Runic Weapons (can be wielded using any dice at hand)
Special Attack: Uses one extra die roll per round to attack with shield (d6)
Special Defenses: Shakes off first wound of battle, roll of 1 degrades die one strength.
Magic Resistance: Grog potion, Slumber magic
Reward: Recover 3d4, 2d6 or Gold in equal die amount or Runic Warhammer (4d10 or stronger)
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Armored NPCs
NPCs that wear armor have at least two dice: one for their actions and one for their armor.
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Morale
Only the most brutal NPCs will fight to the death. When an NPC loses half of their dice pool or takes a great wound that leaves them reeling, they will surrender or flee.
Take note an NPC’s familiarity with magic as well. Anyone who is not used to seeing the wild sorceries that player characters wield will go mad before facing them.
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Foes of the Wilderness
When leaving the civilized world behind, one can expect to treat with terrors beyond description.
Evil doers are a common sight, but monsters are a rarity. Each foe has a number of dice in their pool, the nature of which is obscured to the players and only known to the Dealer. So while a creature may possess 4 dice, they could be of any strength.
This affords Dealers a measure of discretion when setting wild horrors loose upon their players.
Known to this realm are three archetypal foes. They are the Fae, Undead, and Dragons.

Nearer Still, My Beloved
An Ignoble Ordeal
By Jared KimbrellWork In Progress

The Saintly Days of Yore
An Ignoble Ordeal
By Calen HeydtWork In Progress

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ORDEALS

Ordeals are the perils undergone by Delvers in their pursuit of wealth or redemption. Death remembers those who mock it.“You have been taught that what does not kill you makes you stronger. No lie is more vile. Suffering will not make you stronger. It will only make you suffer.”
- Montis the WizenedBetween Ordeals
Delvers may find their efforts in vain, even as their body carries on, their reflection a reminder of Fate’s sympathy. Even still, the wealth of a Pathetic Realm awaits. After surviving an Ordeal, the fruits of perseverance are thus:- Full Dice Pool Replenishment; d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, & d20.
- Fealty to a Guild. Join a faction, adopting their ways.
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Guilds
Character creation does not stop at game setup. After their first Ordeal, Delvers may discover that they’ve suffered to such a degree that to do it all again would be unwise. However, there may be some to which the treasures trapped in yet unreachable quagmires are closer at hand than ever.These Delvers may wish to venture out once more, against new foes and familiar futility. The brave survivors will take on the ranks of various guilds—The Delvers’ Guild ♠ is a merry band of grave robbers and defilers, scratching out a living among the stones of olden barrows. This Guild is by far the most welcoming. Any with strength enough to hoist a spade may take up the dig, and revel in the spoils. “Per terram ad infinitum!”Perhaps they will consort with The Mirror ♥, in service of vampiric saboteurs, searching for one they deem The Fairest. Entrance into their halls is difficult to say the least. Any who have taken grievous injury or harm to their flesh are rejected. In their hunt for the most beautiful specimen, they tolerate only the unscathed. Physical perfection is vehemently extolled among their members, to any end.The League of Cerberus ♣ constitutes a retinue of devout warriors guarding the realm from the Inferno. Theirs is an endless plight, an impossible oath to a world lost to unfaith. They are wary of the Delvers’ Guild, whose affront to Hell ignites conflict in all dead places of the world.Agents of The Hoard ♦ are willingly afflicted with a curse of greed. It is a network of thieves and cutthroats possessed by the miasmatic rot of their elder god, passed down from the first party to descend into the lair of that decaying dragon. Greed fed this deity as he lay guarding the gold for countless centuries. In the slow rotwake of his demise, loyal members of this Guild make pilgrimage to the trove to offer tribute to the great Wurmvault. Admission into their cavernous network of wealth comes at great cost.
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Guild Altars
The Delvers’ Guild ♠ - The recepticals of the dead may be used as Altars. Any coffin, casket, sarcophagus, or urn in which the dead are kept serves this Guild as a holy site.The Mirror ♥ - Your visage changes with every renewed perception. The reflective pool of water, the polished brass, or the Obsidian Splinters all serve as holy sites.The League of Cerberus ♣ - The League has decreed the consecration of certain Altars for Guild use. These include shrines to saints and apostles, gilded tabernacles, and sanctuaries blessed by the League. They have ordained these sites and these sites alone, to their “Holy Orders.”The Hoard ♦ - It is a mystery what these cold blooded pagans consider holy. Some say the mere presence of priceless jewels is enough to stir their humours into a fit.
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The Dealer’s CreedThe game is what happens at the table. The book is a doorway, this creed a keystone. The game is beyond, unreachable until the players bust down the door, entering their own world.PrinciplesArrows always hit something.- Never describe misses as misses. Arrows don’t stop midair and spells aren't cast in a vacuum. Each round, the scales are tipped and odds shift. Decapitated heads become undead enemies, loose stones give way to hidden chambers, weapons become imbedded in the mud or split bubbling cauldrons, cracking them like iron eggs.Survival is overrated.- Always fight for more than your life. Staying alive should never be the only objective. Fill the sandbox of battle with complications. Add at least one objective that isn’t simply staying alive or killing all the enemies. This can be anything from simply stopping one foe from alarming more foes, or taking control of an artifact before the enemy steals it and flees or worse—unleashes it on the party.Never sneak without a plan.- When Delvers enter stealth, consider the following procedure: If a player says “uh or um” during stealth, the party is immediately noticed. Ignoble is a game where players should have a tangible connection to their Delver. To this end, keep in mind procedures that bring aspects of the game out of the character sheet and onto the tabletop. If playing at home, consider lighting a small candlestick whenever a Delver lights a Torch. Should anything cause the flame to go out, so too is the Torch extinguished.