Tomb Runners - Narrative D20 Roleplaying

Tomb Runners is a fast paced, rules-lite, high stakes fantasy RPG with OSR flavor and the all new Narrative D20 System to reinforce that style of play. To put it in game terms: Tomb Runners is like Blades in the Dark jumped in a blender with Shadowdark.

Tomb Runners uses the all new Narrative D20 System, merging the iconic D20 rolls with scaling success so that every roll advances the action instead of slowing it down. Fun for players and easy for GMs, this core mechanic creates a natural flow to the game and keeps the action coming while capturing the feel of traditional fantasy RPGs. The game is fast, accessible, and perfect for one-shot adventures, weekly campaigns, or family game nights. Player skill and creativity rule the tombs, with simple one page mechanics that reward smart play and dice rolls that always advance the action

15 Page Rules Preview PDF

But the Tombs are deadly, characters will burn bright and die fast!

Tomb Runners features:

• Narrative D20 System with scaling success where every roll leads to more action and never a "miss"
• Core Rules fit on a single sheet of paper, letting you learn the game in minutes and focus on playing the game, not flipping through books
• Rewarding mechanics that reinforce player skill and creativity, and the heart of OSR play with rulings, not rules
• Dynamic encounter design that is easy for the GM and exciting for the whole table
• Roguelike, fast paced adventures that encourage players to play dangerously and push the limits of their characters
• Custom class system that lets players explore deep character concepts and abilities through the heritage, job, and feat systems instead of rolling for stats
• Stress resource: a universal mechanic for all characters to do cool stuff, whether they're a barbarian doing combat stunts or a wizard blasting off spells
• Downtime rules including crafting, earning supplies, and healing to skip the slow stuff and get right back to the adventuring
• Dozens of Tables to generate unique monsters, tombs, encounters, treasures, magic items, and more
• Monster rules that are based on behaviors and tactics, not stat blocks
• Universal system to run adventures and dungeons from any fantasy RPG with zero prep or conversion thanks to the universal level and simple XD6 damage mechanics

The Narrative D20 System

All rolls for combat, spellcasting, and social actions use the core mechanic, allowing players full freedom of play and creativity to do cool things. The Narrative D20 System also makes running the game a breeze, as the rolls and results naturally lead to what happens next for the GM to act, wether the players succeed, fail, or succeed with a cost. Fans of Blades in the Dark and Shadowdark will be right at home with Tomb Runners. Roll that D20 and see what happens next. 

If you've ever said, "can my character do this cool thing?", the answer in Tomb Runners is YES. Creativity is the heart of Tomb Runners, rewarding players for using their characters abilities, items, and resources in smart and inventive ways. A sword isn't just a weapon, it can also be used to bar a door and stop an oncoming skeleton horde. A fire spell can be a simple fireball, or it could set the barbarians battle axe on fire to smash the frozen lich right in the face. All player actions follow this type of creativity-first play, letting them freely use their resources and the game mechanics to do cool stuff. The Stress system is a simple resource for all characters to power their abilities, resist Consequences, Assist each other, cast spells, and more. The GM can be permissive and encourage players trying exciting things because the dice will eventually catch up to them, and thats when Bad Things Happen. 

Class System

The DIY class system in Tomb Runners is simple, versatile, and powerful, letting players create any type of character concept that fits into traditional fantasy RPG design or merges and blends them into something wholly new. The system is Statless, instead using Heritage, Jobs, Items and Feats to create unique characters with deep customization.

• 6 Heritages that represent your species and grant unique bonuses
• 10 Jobs that give you unique Downtime options for crafting weapons and armor, scrolls, potions, or special tasks like performing or working as a merchant or sneaky thief
• 50+ Feats that blend traditional class powers for complete character freedom. Go deep on an archetype or go wide for multi-class creativity

You can build traditional classes like barbarians, thieves, paladins, wizards, etc, or create something wholly new like a heavily armored death knight with a skeleton warrior servant, a cursed druid that can only shapeshift into a werebear with endless rage in combat, or a slippery acrobatic monk, able to deliver a flurry of unarmed blows and dodge even the most dangerous consequences with ease.

GM Tools

The Narrative D20 System makes running the game a breeze for GMs. Mechanics blend with narrative and let players drive the action, leading you to the outcomes for every roll and setting the stage for the next action. The included tables and scaling Level system makes encounter design simple to balance so you can focus on making them more interesting instead of worrying about the math. Tomb Runners is all about big encounters instead of slow paced crawls through mostly empty dungeons, and it helps GMs create memorable boss fights and big action movie set piece style encounters with just a few D6 rolls on the fly.

The job of the GM in Tomb Runners is to set the scene for the players, pointing out any dangers, monsters, or obstacles, then seeing how they react. The players then make their Action Rolls and the scene advances. The characters succeed or face consequences, or most often, a mix of both. This fail-forward style of play keeps the action moving and the stakes high, and encourages players to play smart and use their resources aggressively to succeed. Every roll advances the scene, and the core mechanic guides the GM by having players state what they're doing, how they're doing it, and their goal, giving you natural outcomes to employee to keep the pressure on players and challenge them equal to their abilities. Your goal isn't to win, but to make exciting and dangerous encounters for them to overcome, sometimes at a high price.

Inspired by West End Star Wars D6, Tomb Runners uses a D6 scaling wound and injury system making it extremely easy to balance monsters and combat without removing the excitement and danger of fighting monsters.

Level based scaling reduces monsters to a single level based stat and lets you instead focus on how the monsters act. Their behavior, instincts, items, tactics, and weaknesses matter more than a list of numbers. With this approach, combat becomes a dynamic action scene instead of a slow slog of swings and misses. The monster chapter includes dozens of iconic monsters with information on their behavior and tactics instead of stat blocks. Combined with the monster generation table, you have infinite fun and interesting monsters for your players to face.

The Level system also means you can adapt any fantasy adventures to Tomb Runners with no complicated conversion charts. You can pull from any of the classic games and your favorite adventures, or mash them together on the fly, letting the Tomb Runners system make it easier instead of bogging you down in hours of prep or worry about balance. 

Run your favorite classic dungeons from D&D, the latest from Shadowdark, or the weirdest adventures from Dungeon Crawl Classics. Ignore stat blocks, instead consider the abilities and items the monsters have and think about how they would use them in fun and creative ways. Pull the best rooms from the dungeons and turn them into exciting encounters when combined with the Tomb Runners tools. 

Solo & GM-less modes

The game supports Solo and GM-less play with easy to use oracles that help you create an adventure, set the scenes, and consider potential consequences before making your rolls. The tables for consequences, monster tactics, narrative oracles, Clocks, and more help you randomize the game and find a solution that makes sense with your story. 

The Narrative D20 System creates a natural ebb and flow of the character facing challenges and overcoming them or struggling in each scene. With narrative-first and mechanical reinforced consequences for the actions and a simple, multi-axis GM oracle for randomizing outcomes beyond player actions. 

The Project

Tomb Runners is a tribute to all the games I have love, from my childhood into adulthood. The Narrative D20 System is my way of bringing those memories back to life at the table, a way to invite others into the hobby, and a way to show veteran RPG players a new way to play in their familiar spaces. The Narrative D20 System that runs Tomb Runners will be released under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA, allowing anyone to hack the game and create something new.

The project is already print ready.  The work has been done including writing, art, and printed proofs for the physical goods. We are ready to produce and distribute the game, and your pledge will go straight into fulfillment and not to the promise of what might get made.  

Rewards

Tomb Runners Deluxe Edition Hardcover - $40

The complete Tomb Runners experience, featuring 150 pages in A5 size with a hardcover binding. The complete game and all the premade adventures for you to jump into, featuring 50 custom Tombs to run and mix up to create your own. 

Tomb Runners Core Zine Edition - $25

The core game in a classic A5 zine softcover binding. This is the core book with all of the game rules, player, GM, and monster sections for creating your own adventures. Includes starter tomb for an intro adventure in the Tomb Realms.  

Digital Core Edition - $20

The Core Edition in a print friendly PDF file and a screen friendly spread layout.

Digital Deluxe Edition - $30

The Deluxe Edition in a print friendly PDF file and a screen friendly spread layout. Also includes files for the GM screen.

Tomb Runners GM Screen - $15

A custom A5 3 panel GM screen with all the monster, treasure, tomb, and consequence tables as well as the full core rules for quick reference.

Custom Tomb Runners Dice and Sticker Set - $15

Large font black and white dice featuring the Tomb Runners skull on the 20 faces and stickers of the iconic D6 Ooze Monster. Designers not final*

The Tomb Lord - $55

This is the all-in pledge, giving you everything above. You'll get the following:

• Tomb Runners Deluxe Edition Hardcover
• Tomb Runners GM Screen
• Tomb Runners Custom Dice and Sticker Pack
• Digital Deluxe Edition - Deluxe Book PDF + GM Screen PDF

The books are already complete, so all stretch goals will let us upgrade the paper, the materials used for the bindings, covers, and extra features like bookmark ribbons, etc. This means no feature bloat to slow down production or delivery timelines. 

20k - Heavier Paper Weight

30k - Gloss Highlighted Cover

40k - Edge Printing

50k - Ribbon Bookmarks  

Made in the USA

With full consideration of the uncertainty of global production and trade, we have sourced all book printing to US based production partners to ensure ongoing tarriffs and shipping issues have minimal impact on Tomb Runners. The books are printed in Florida, and South Carolina. These printers have already delivered millions of products including our previous Kickstarter with 1000 Dungeon Master's decks; they are reliable and fantastic production teams. Printing everything in the US also allows a much faster timeline on fulfillment without having to secure and wait on international cargo slots and freight and freight delivery. You will get your products faster with much more reasonable shipping costs, often under $10 for US backers.

A note on AI

Tomb Runners is made purely by human hands. Every word, pen stroke, and pixel in the layout was done by real people with real artistic skills. Nothing in Tomb Runners may be used to train generative AI models, LLMs, or any other exploitative machine learning engines. We stand for and beside our fellow artists and soundly reject all AI usage for artistic creation in the specific and the broader harm it causes in general.