Heroes of the Fall

Heroes of the Fall is a role-play gaming system intendedfor games with a heavy focus on the accurate simulation of martial combat.

Combat actions need to be described as swinging, thrusting, or shooting a weapon at a particular target area of an oppenent's body.
A single dice 2 of three d8 and one d100 will resolve almost all actions, including combat.
There are no hit points. Damage outcomes are defined objectively by the rules.
Characters can learn new skills, but there is no levelling system. Success is measured by achieving of goals within the scenario.
Magic exists, but casting spells is risky, particularly for the inexperienced.
Magic items also exist but they are rare and powerful.

Roleplay Rules...The rules are primarily intended to enhance the atmosphere by establishing a degree of objectivity distinct from the GM’s judgement and introducing an element of chance. They are not intended to exhaustively cover all situations.

role-play Games

role-play games provide a framework for players to take on and develop the roles of characters that they have created. The form of role-play covered by these rules is characterised by one player taking the role of Games Master (GM). This person creates a scenario populated by non-player characters (NPCs). All other players devise individual alternate personas, player characters (PCs), whose actions they control during interactions and events in the GM’s scenario.

There are many styles of role-play games with differing philosophies and mechanics of play. In this interpretation of role-play the intention of the game is not for any players to ‘win’ or to indulge in a power race, it is more like cooperating with the GM generating a ‘story’ where each player feels that their character has a major role. The intention is for players and GM to enjoy the development of characters by working through a plot background generated by the GM and by the players making choices for their characters and developing them as the story unfolds. The GM sets the background and the basic plot otherwise there will be no coherence and no surprises for the players. However, the players should have a significant, active part in influencing the course of events through their characters’ actions.

There has to be a balance struck between an individual player’s urge to achieve her character’s goals and fairness to other players. There also have to be elements of challenge and the possibility of failure otherwise there is no excitement for the player. For everyone to have fun players and GM must co-operate with the narrative process and the players usually need to work as a party. In advanced games, there can be conflict between PCs but this should not be reflected in conflict between players. For such conflicts to work there needs to be even better co-operation between players and GM than when the PCs have good reasons for working together as a party. This is not the kind of game where one player beats another or the GM beats the players. The best outcome of any game is that everyone has fun and each player feels that her character has played an important role.