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A game by Luis "Lasbelin" Belloch

Content Warning: drugs, fantasy violence

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 The endless mines of Moria where once the
biggest and most impressive home of the dwarven
people. However when the excavation unearthed
the Balrog Moria was abandoned and its kingdom
lost in time. After the Balrog was killed by the
grey wizard the dwarves reunite under the Misty
Mountains to restore their ancient home.

You are one of those groups of exiled dwarves

who heard of the dead Balrog and decided to
march once again to Moria and give your weapons
under the service of a new king.

Before each mission you will start in a safe

campsite where dwarves preppare for their
expeditions under the mountain. Stablish a goal
and then march into the depths of Moria.

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 HOW TO PLAY
SESSION 0
Before you start, define lines that should not be
crossed. Pause or rewind the game if something
uncomfortable happens during a session. Always
make sure everyone is comfortable with the
direction of the story.

PLAYING THE GAME

One person is the game master (GM) , the rest are
players.

GM: Guide the story, present challenges to the

group. Be a fan of the players. Ask them questions,
fill the world with their answers. If it's cool, let
them try or split complex challenges into multiple
checks.

Player: Narrate what your character does. Make

checks when things are risky. Give everyone a
time to shine. Fill the world with your ideas. Take
risks, and rise up from failures.

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 CHECKS
When there's a challenge that needs to be
overcome, you make a check to see how it plays
out. You only need to roll if what you are doing is
risky.

The GM telegraphs the risk of your action, you

then pick a skill, and roll the die that matches its
rating. If an ally helps you, they also make a check,
but share the same risks as you. Take the highest
die and interpret the results.

- On a 1 -2, you fail, and something wrong hap-

pens.
- On a 3-4, you succeed, but at a cost.
- On a 5+, you succeed. The higher the result, the
better the effect.

Surviving is hard. Everyone who rolled reduces

the rating of the skill they used by one level:
d1 2 » d1 0 » d8 » d6 » d4.
Skills cannot go lower than a d4.

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The GM can disclaim decision-making by testing
for luck. To do so, pick a die rating simply based
on the odds of a thing happening, roll, and
interpret the results.

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 FOR MORIA!
To reset the skills to their original rating, you can
shout "FOR MORIA!". This resets all players' skills
to their original rating.

When a character uses "FOR MORIA!" the risk of

the mission raises by 1 .

LOOTING
When the fiction allows it, you can make a loot
check to scavenge for tools, weapons, ale, etc. Be
wary of what is lurking in the shadow. When you
do a loot check, roll a d20.

- On a 1 , something bad happens.

- On a 1 5-1 6, you find a d6 item.
- On a 1 7-1 8, you find a d8 item.
- On a 1 9-20, you find a d1 0 item —or— ale.

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BACKPACK
Items in your backpack can be used in place of
your skills. They start with a die rating which
decreases after each use. When reduced to a d4,
the item either breaks, gets lost, or fades away
from the fiction until it’s made relevant again.

Characters can only carry 5 items and one pint of

ale at once in their backpack.

STUNTS
When you pull off a stunt, you use a d1 2 instead
of a skill rating to do a check. Once used, you'll
need to shout "FOR MORIA!" to use it again.

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 STRESS
When you face a consequence as a result of one of
your actions, the GM can decide that you take 1
stress. If your character reaches 4 stress, they
become “vulnerable”.

When vulnerable, failing a dangerous action could

mean being taken out —or— sudden death. You
drink ale to clear 2 stress, or lay low someplace
secure awhile to clear 1 stress.

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 CHARACTER CREATION
On your character sheet, write down your
character’s name. All characters are dwarves.
Although gender is not something dwarves are
converned with, as all dwarves look and act
mostly the same, you can write the preferred
pronous of your dwarf.

By default, skills have a d4 rating. Assign a d1 0, a

d8, and a d6 to three skills you think your
character is good at.
Characters have a total of 6 skills:

- Bash: wreck, move, force.

- Tactics: movement, positioning.
- Sneak: hide, skulk, lurk.
- Speleology: analyse terrain, explore, search.
- Cooking: prepparing foods, brewing beer.
- Tongue: charm, manipulate, intimidate.

Think of an item that you got before leaving for

your adventure, and add it to your backpack as a
d1 0 item.

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 MISSIONS
To start creating a mission start by setting the
objetive with 1 d6.

1 Find a mithril (d1 0) item

2 Clear a goblin or orc camp
3 Secure a checkpoint
4 Explore a new area
5 Rescue someone or a group
6 Recover lost items
THE CAMP
Between missions you will return to the camp in
the upper levels of the mines, a safe place to
administrate the slow retake of Moria. Here you
will be able to recruit new members, make bonds
(or become rivals) , play dice and craft items to
use.

After a mission propose something that could

changed in the camp while the group was down in
the mines. Each player can add something to the
list, then shuffle the possible changes and then
select a random one. It's best if at least half are
bad for the group. More conflict, more adventure.
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ENEMIES
When using monsters set a number of difficulty
for them. This number must be always the same
or lower than the Risk of the mission. Every check
the players might do against the enemy will have
the same target number as the difficulty of the
enemy. Every time a player fails a check against it,
reduce the difficulty. It can never be less than 2.

For D&D or Pathfinder monsters use their CR as

the Difficulty.

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 This work is based on Breathless, product of Fari RPGs
(https://farirpgs.com/) , developed and authored by René-Pier
DeshaiesGélinas, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Front page illustration by ncorva on DeviantArt (Creative Commons

Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License)

Drawings by Axebane Games & Daniel F. Walthall

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