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v3.1.1. This is donation-ware. If you like this RPG, send $3.00 to design@adastragames.com via PayPal, (or contact us for alternate payment methods). If you feel it’s worth more, we won’t object.Copyright © 2008, Ad Astra Games. Permission granted to redistribute, provided this notice is not removed. Latest version: http://www.adastragames.com/downloads/RPGs/Minimus.pdf 
 What Is Minimus?
Minimus is a storytelling game with a game master, and playerswho take on ctional personalities called characters. Te game hassome jargon (bennies, skill ranks) that will make sense in context.Te game master, with player input, sets what the game is about,or its
theme
, and uses the goals and relationships o characters tostructure
 plots
. Minimus uses playing cards or event sequencing,and 20-sided dice (called d20s) to determine success.
Character Creation
Once the game master has revealed the theme, players shoulddiscuss roles. Roles can be “mercenary”, “detective” or “wizard”.Aer choosing a role, write ve lie changing events rom yourcharacter’s past. “Aer event X, I did action Y” is a good start. Eventscan range rom taking a trip to witnessing your parent’s murder. alkto other players i you’re stuck.Pass the sheet to the person on your le. Tey’ll take your eventsand list seven jobs or skills based on them. Te player to your rightwill hand their sheet to you, and you’ll be doing the same or them.ry to pick skills that the other person will have un playing.You can use the skills in the table below, or make up your own.
Knife1H Melee2H MeleeMartial ArtsDefenseRunningThrowingPistol 
Rie
BowRidingJumpingClimbingSwimmingDemolitionsSurvivalNoticeSearchMerchantPersuasionIntimidatePickpocketLockpickingSneakingMechanicComputersMedic(Drive/Pilot)(Profession)(Knowledge)1H Melee is one-handed weapons, 2H Melee is two-handed weapons
Pass the character sheet one more place to the le. Tat playerlooks at the ve background details and the seven skills, and denestwo positive special abilities. Special abilities are adjectives withexclamation points, like ough!, Smart!, Fast!, Keen Eyed!, or Detec-tive! For magic or psionic abilities, things like Prophecy!, Fire Magic!,or elekinesis! are appropriate. (You will be doing this or anotherplayer as well, as the sheets get passed around the table.)When your character is given back to you, you may give up onespecial ability, or let the the game master add a drawback, or char-acter aw. Te owning player distributes twelve skill ranks betweenseven skills, with at least one and no more than our in each skill.
Relationships & Goals
Once you’ve set skill ranks, it’s time to dene who your characterknows and how they eel about you. Tese are your character’s
rela-tionships
. You need at least three, and more are better. Relationshipsare tied to you by blood, romance or association. wo thirds o therelationships you dene should like your character, the rest shouldhave a grievance with them.Each relationship should be able to do something useul that yourcharacter couldn’t do otherwise. Tey will always ask or somethingin return. I you’re stuck, start with your “ve events” list and ask“Who did I do these things with? How do they eel about me now?”Write two goals or your character; aer any scene where you tookaction to achieve that goal, it gains a
 goal bennie
, which is explainedlater on. Pick goals that you, as a player, want to see develop over sev-eral sessions. Goals change over time, and should orce you to action;when completed a goal should result in a lie changing event like theve you started with. Sample goals can be “Avenge the insult done tome by person X” or “Liberate my homeland” or “Marry person Y”.List your character’s name and their goals in the middle o a sheeto paper; then list your relationships around them, with what they can do or you, and room to draw lines. Tick lines are ties o blood,medium lines are ties o romance, thin lines are ties o aliation.Like and dislike are shown by colored arrows. Blue arrows meanliking the target, red arrows mean dislike. Draw colored arrows be-tween all the names on the sheet. Once everyone’s done that, put thecharacter sheets in the middle o the table, and draw arrows betweenyour relationships and theirs. Tis builds a
social network
. Te gamemaster assigns starting equipment based on skills and backstory.
Your character’s goals and relationships are important. If youdon’t care about them, nobody else will! 
At the start o each adventure, every character needs an introduc-tory action scene showing a personal problem. A great example is theopening o 
Raiders o the Lost Ark
where Indiana Jones is introduced.A sample character (or a Viking game) is shown below
Bennies & Characters
At the start o every adventure, your character has three generalbennies. You may have more rom prior adventure, or other reasons.Tere are two types—general bennies, and goal bennies.General bennies can be spent to re-roll any die roll and take thebetter result. Tey’re extra luck when you need it, but once spent,they’re gone. Goal bennies let you roll an extra die per bennie on
every
roll related to that goal, keeping the result o your choice; they are
not 
spent by doing this! Goal bennies are heroic drive, like InigoMontoya in
Te Princess Bride
.You can change your written goals at any time; doing so convertsany goal bennies to general bennies.
Completing 
a goal converts eachgoal bennie to
two
general bennies.Bennies (o either sort) are sometimes spent to activate specialabilities; goal bennies used this way are expended.Between sessions, bennies can be spent to improve skills. Gettingrank one in a new skill costs three bennies. Improving an existingskill costs bennies equal to the new skill rank - going rom rank ourto rank ve costs ve bennies. No skill can go past rank twelve.You may add a new special ability or twelve bennies, but it has tobe approved by two other players and the game master.I your character dies, unspent bennies convert to general benniesand transer to the new one. I your character died nobly, you getthree extra bennies, plus the three or starting a new adventure.
Minimus: Roleplaying Distilled
 
by Ken Burnside
Bandar Thickbeard
 Avenge Death of Thorfin Haakonen, father.Prove that Osgrim Egilsson Cheats On His Wife
Greta Aesasdottir
Will give shelter and hospitality to Bandar; former lover of Bandar married to Osgrim Egilsson
Osgrim Egilsson
Former Shipmate of Bandar’sWill stand up for Bandar in the Council.Married to Greta for political reasons.
 Trygvygg Haakonen
Captain of the Black Bitch. Estranged brother of Bandar. Will give transport on the ship out of memory of their father.
Five Life Changing Events From Bandar Thickbeard’s Past 
1) He was exiled for seven years due to a blood feud with the Kettilsens. The feud cost his father his life.2) His hot temper has made him feared in battle, but he feels that his temper makes things worse.3) His brother Trygvygg, a successful trader, blames him for causing the feud to escalate.4) His nickname comes from a swordblow that skated off his beard rather than beheading him.5) His childhood sweetheart (Greta) married a shipmate of his (Osgrim) rather than go into exile with him.
Sailor 2 Throwing 41H Melee 2Speeches 1Chess 1Drinking 1For. Customs 1 Tough!Hidden Wealth!Doomed Love!Problem: Old bloodfeud threatens to rearits ugly head again.
 
v3.1.1. This is donation-ware. If you like this RPG, send $3.00 to design@adastragames.com via PayPal, (or contact us for alternate payment methods). If you feel it’s worth more, we won’t object.Copyright © 2008, Ad Astra Games. Permission granted to redistribute, provided this notice is not removed. Latest version: http://www.adastragames.com/downloads/RPGs/Minimus.pdf 
Scene Setting & Details
Aer the game master sets a scene, each player gets to ask a“clariying question”, using senses their character has, and things thecharacter would know. Te game master can say “yes” or “no”. I thegame master says “no”, the next player gets to ask, and the processrepeats until every player has gotten a “yes”, or been told “no” twice.Te game master may cut this short to keep the game moving.Sample clariying questions: “Was this battlestation built withoutguardrails on the catwalks?” Or “Would that chandelier hold my weight?”. Even “Te dry dusty weather is making Doc Holliday’stuberculosis act up, isn’t it?” is a clariying question.You may not use a clariying question to negate someone else’s ac-tions, or change the psychology or behavior o another character.Anything the game master says “yes” to is a
detail.
During thescene, any character can incorporate that detail into the descriptiono their action, which adds one to the die roll per detail used.Equipment can have details dened. Equipment details can beused once per scene; no equipment can have more three details set.
Task Sequencing
In some situations, it’s important to know “what happens when”.Each player declares what they’re doing, incorporating any detailsdesired, but not adding any conditional or sequencing elements,like “Aer Bob shoots, I’ll charge them.” Aer hearing the player’sdeclarations, the game master declares his character actions, drawinga card or each one, placing it ace down in ront o him.Aer this is done, each player draws one card rom a deck o cards, looking at it and placing it ace down in ront o them. Onceall players have done so, they may trade cards or the next 30 sec-onds. When trading, players may not speak or communicate the value o a card, even to indicate “high” or “low”. A player that ipstheir card ace up is done trading.When trading is done, everyone ips their card, and actions gorom deuce to Ace. Matched cards mean those actions are simul-taneous, and a Joker allows that character to act at any point in thesequence. Reshue the deck when a Joker is drawn.Card trading rewards players or listening to each other’s actions.eamwork means ipping your card as early as possible so yourteammates can plan. It makes or exciting, chaotic scenes, not tacti-cal chess matches.
Special Abilities
Special abilities act like clariying questions, but are player initi-ated and narrated. Use special abilities to gain inormation, declaresomething is true in the current scene, or negate a game penalty.Special ability use must pass common sense - Detective! won’tnegate a wound. ough! can’t dene a trail rom clue to perp. UsingFire Magic! to weld something shut is perectly legal, though!Special abilities that are used all the time cease to be special; asa result, the third and subsequent uses o a special ability cost onebennie each. Special abilities used in opposition to each other requireeach player to narrate their action and bid bennies. Te higher bidworks, and costs that many bennies to use. Every two details used innarration counts as one bennie or the bid.For three bennies spent at the start o a session, a special abil-ity can be an “at will” power, costing no urther bennies during thatgame session. Add the three bennies to any bids or opposed use.Te GM may always say a special ability ails.
Skill Resolution
o use a skill, roll a d20, adding any skill ranks, and +1 per detailincorporated into the description. You need to equal or exceed atarget number set by the game master (usually ten or higher). Tehigher or lower the roll, the more one-sided the success or ailure is.I you’re acting against another character, it’s an opposed skillcheck. Both o you roll; the higher roll wins. Te dierence betweenthe rolls determines how one sided the success was, called the Mar-gin o Success (MoS).
Success, Failure & Bennies
If you fail, you describe the failure.
A gripping description o ailure lets another player nominate you or a general bennie. I thenomination is seconded, you get it.Scenes involving a drawback give a general bennie; other playerscan nominate you or more, depending on how much you compli-cated your lie by roleplaying the drawback...Acting on your goals can give goal bennies; you can never havemore than our goal bennies in a single goal.You may always narrate a ailure, no matter what the die roll says.
Combat
Combat uses opposed skills. Attackers roll, adding weapon skill,deenders roll, adding the Deense skill. wo handed weapon andrie users roll deenses twice, taking the
lower 
roll. Wounds are set by the MoS, as multiplied or divided by the dierence between weaponand armor levels.
WeaponLevelArmorLevel Thrown rock, Fist1None0 Knife2Flexible armor11 hand melee, pistol, bow3Metal armor2 
2 hand melee, rie
4Rigid metal armor3Crew served5Modern composite armor4
Subtract the armor level rom weapon level, and multiply the mar-gin o success by that amount. For zero or less, see the table belowand divide the MoS by the divisor. Round ractions normally.
Weapon-ArmorDivisorAdjusted MoSWounds022-31 (Cut to extremity)-134-52 (Heavy bleeding, broken bone)-246-73 (Severed hand, bullet in the gut)-358+
Out of the ght! Major body trauma! 
-4612+May be dead.
Te target describes where they got hit; or every two ull levels o MoS, they take a wound. Each wound is a cumulative -1 penalty onskills. An MoS o 8 puts you out o the ght, an MoS o 12 can kill.You can take any number o wounds until hit by an MoS o 8+Death is too important to leave up to dice; you decide i yourcharacter dies. Other players narrating actions driven by a characterdeath can be nominated or bennies.Healing occurs when the story allows it; a successul Medic rollheals one wound. Te Healing! special ability removes all wounds.
Combat Example
Bandar throws a rock (level 1) at a oe in mail (level 2). He rollsan 11, adding 4 or Trowing and gets a 15. His target rolls a Deenseo 10, giving a MoS o 5. Level 1 weapon minus level 2 armor is -1,dividing the MoS by 3, giving 1, which is a hit, but no wound.Later, he uses a spear against this oe with identical rolls. Level 3weapon minus level 2 armor is 1; the MoS o 5 deals two wounds.
 
v3.1.1. This is donation-ware. If you like this RPG, send $3.00 to design@adastragames.com via PayPal, (or contact us for alternate payment methods). If you feel it’s worth more, we won’t object.Copyright © 2008, Ad Astra Games. Permission granted to redistribute, provided this notice is not removed. Latest version: http://www.adastragames.com/downloads/RPGs/Minimus.pdf 
Design Intent
Minimus is a storytelling game, a cousin o roleplaying gamessuch as
D&D
. Te ocus o a storytelling game is on descriptions o character actions. Tere’s more o a ocus on “why” things happen,rather than detailed rules on “how” things happen.Te cardinal rule or running a storytelling game is this:
Story logic trumps realism. If it sounds cool, say “yes” 
.
Getting Players
You might have a group willing to try any game at any time. Somegroups are more hesitant, or you might not have an existing group atall. I you want to start a Minimus game, here are some things to try:I you already play D&D, you already know the basic mechanic.Te entire “player’s handbook” is two pages! How hard can it be?Character creation is a group activity!Or, maybe you read Minimus and thought “No way my group willgo or this...they’d treat it as a joke.” You may be right; i your players
like
interlocking tactical combat, Minimus may leave them cold.We recommend Minimus as a change o pace game, or an intro-ductory game or people who steer clear o 300 page rule-books.
Setting A Theme
Te rst question a game master must answer is “what’s the gameabout?”. Tis is the game’s
theme.
Get the players involved in settingthe theme, and you’ll nd a lot o things a lot easier.One method is a movie survey; each player lists two movies they liked well enough to recommend, and one they hated. Eliminateany movie that someone hated. O the movies le, look or commonelements and write up a pitch (or example, the pitch or
 Alien
was“Jaws. On a spaceship.”), then discuss it with your players.You can get odd games this way; one memorable playtest hadbadass redneck vampires ghting an alien invasion, built rom themovies
Blade
,
Bubba Ho-ep
and
 Mars Attacks! 
.A more structured method is an auction. Each player (includ-ing the game master!) gets ten tokens. Dening a backstory element(location, person, piece o history or relationship) costs a token. Eachadditional token spent makes that element more important. Playersmay bid tokens to reduce an element’s importance, dropping it tozero removes it rom the game. It’s usually more eective to add ele-ments than to erase them, through each group diers in this.Once the theme is set, let players discuss roles, and suggest a ew.As they dene their character’s “ve events”, try to tie those events tothe game’s theme. Again, suggest connections, and don’t be araid toalter the world to accommodate the characters.
Character Creation Help
For players who can’t think o ve lie changing events, try askingthe ollowing questions to get them started.
What social strata and location were they born in?  Are their parents still alive? Have they ever lost a loved one, and i so, how did it afect them? Do they have any children? How were they educated? Formally, on the job, or by travel? How do they earn a living? Were they ever in the military? Is there anything they won’t do, ever? Why? Who dislikes them? Why? Who likes them? Why? Give names! Have they had prior adventures, or are they “resh of the arm”? 
Some players dene skills too narrowly, or the list o ve eventsdoesn’t suggest any to them. Suggest jobs a character might have hadas the result o their ve events. Characters get a lot o competence“on the y” rom clariying questions and details; someone with theright details can compensate or not having a skill at all.
 Assigning Drawbacks
Drawbacks ow naturally rom a character’s ve events list. I youcan’t think o something, ask the other players or suggestions.Drawbacks give players opportunities to make their characterslives “more interesting” through their own actions. Drawbacks that
don’t 
generate action (like missing a hand, or being blind) should beavoided. When assigning an antagonist as a drawback, use a black-mailer, or creditor rather than someone they can just shoot.Compulsive drawbacks (like lechery or addictions) are great or“make it worse” situations. So are reputation or social drawbacks.Focused bad karma is an excellent drawback; Doomed Love is anexample. Te character is ated to all in love many times and havetheir heart broken, or the person they love suer cruel ates.Resolving a drawback can end a character’s story arc. When itdoesn’t end that character’s story, ask the player i they’d like a draw-back to replace the one that was just resolved.
Relationship Dynamics
Once your players have dened their character relationships, putall the character sheets in the center o the table, and suggest linksbetween characters. You want at least hal the characters connectedby like and dislike arrows and ties o aliation or romance.Now, copy as much o this relationship network as you can aroundthe outer edge o a large (11x17” or larger sheet), leaving the centerclear. Tis is your overall relationship map as it exists at the start o your rst adventure, and it will be used to propel the plot and keepthings in motion. You’ll be building a new relationship map at thestart o each adventure.
Clarifying Questions
Players, through the “Clariying Questions” process, shape con-ict scenes; this is what Minimus uses instead o a gridded map andminiatures, and it takes some adjustment. It does reect what you seeon movies and in comic books, where heroes win ghts by tricks likeshooting missiles at clis to bury their opponent with a rock slideDetails incentivize cool description, but “cool” varies by genre.In a game o swashbuckling swordsmen, details will be swingingrom chandeliers or sliding down a sail by knie point.In a gritty technothriller, details will be good intelligence, sitingyour sniper’s nest at just the right place, and adjusting or windage.Clariying questions get rid o the “total ailure” encounter prob-lem; where it’s a piece o cake i the players do exactly the right thing,or make exactly the right set o skill rolls...and nobody among theplayers gures it out. By using clariying questions to line up the de-tails, you can save on a lot o rustration at the game table. (Tis alsoworks or the grand nale scene in a murder mystery adventure.)Equipment is just a way to store details, and the limits on it are ordramatic reasons. It’s more un to use the environment to gain an ad- vantage, rather than pulling it o the third page o a character sheet!
Game Mastering Minimus
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