System Rules

The System Rules are a set of guidelines and mechanics used in the Tavern Tales system to establish the format and structure of gameplay. A brief summary of each chapter of the rules from the official PDF follows below, with links to pages with more detailed information.

Getting Started
See main article, Getting Started

This section focuses on introducing the reader to some of the core philosophies of the game system. This section also gives information on materials required to play, and the role that each person is expected to take during gameplay.

Telling Tales
See main article, Telling Tales

This section focuses on the core mechanic of the game system, Tales, and their usage in gameplay. This section also addresses the issues of gameplay sequence (or turn order), taking Risks, and the Roll mechanic employed (as well as its variations and related effects).

Challenges
See main article, Challenges

This section focuses on the use of Challenges as both a measure of difficulty and progress towards a given goal. This section also introduces Conditions that can be applied to characters and Defenses that characters can acquire.

Movement and Spaces
See main article, Movement and Spaces

This section focuses on defining terms and relative distances used in movement and defining areas of effects.

Building a Character
See main article, Building a Character

This section focuses on the character creation process, introduces the usage of Experience to develop characters, and introduces both the Stat System used by default and the concept of Traits to define characters. This section also emphasizes the Reflavor Rule for character aesthetics, discusses advancement of characters, and the results of character Death.

Building a World
See main article, Building a World

This section focuses on the split between open world "sandbox" gameplay and closed world "module" gameplay. This section emphasizes use of the Collaboration mechanic as a group to develop story and introduces the Worldbuilding mechanic.

Minions
See main article, Minions 

This section focuses on defining nonplayer characters that can be acquired by various abilities in game. This section defines the Contracts that are required for players to gain Minions for use, and gives suggestions for roleplaying minions.

Special Rules and Keywords
See main article, Special Rules and Keywords

This section focuses on giving clarification to the keywords and core mechanics of the game system. This section also lists rules that didn't fit into other sections as well as optional or variant rules.

Next Chapter: Getting Started →