english edition

Authors: Alessandro Piroddi e Luca Maiorani

Text: Alessandro Piroddi
Development: Alessandro Piroddi, Luca Maiorani
Graphics, layout & illustrations: Luca Maiorani
Editing: Giacomo Gentile, Jessica Collins
Special thanks to: Chiara Listo, Giuseppe Vitale, Beatrice Gravaghi,
Claudia Colini, Alex Grisafi, Claudio "Ranocchio", Andrea Parducci,
Mattia Bulgarelli, Lapo Luchini, Niccolò Maria Ricchio

ms edizioni/magic store srl

Editorial director: Andrea Mazzolani
Curator: Enrico Emiliani
Editing: Giacomo Gentile

Fantasy World RPG - 2022 © MS Edizioni/Magic Store srl.

All Rights Reserved.
Fantasy World RPG - 2022 © MS Edizioni/Magic Store srl.
Tutti i diritti riservati.
1 fundamental
knowledge
 Essential concepts for setting the right
expectations and understanding whether
this is the game you want to play.
 chapter 1

introduction
dramatic fantasy
Fantasy World is a game that focuses on dramatic fantasy
adventuring.
Dramatic fantasy is not about soap opera melodrama among teen
wizards, although this could be a lot of fun, please someone make
this game!
Dramatic fantasy is about the very personal conflicts, internal
and external, that turn a bunch of drifting murderers into a group
of heroes. It’s about the consequences of their actions, and how they
affect both the Protagonists and the world around them. It’s about
the tough choices and personal sacrifices and joys and sorrows and
scars and hopes driving the Protagonists through their adventures.
It’s about the things that make you care for what happens.
When you don’t care, something as epic as saving a kingdom
could feel like a trivial and bothersome chore. When you do care,
6
something as trivial as keeping a promise to a random village kid
can feel epic and fulfilling. What this game’s rules do is help you
and your friends inject this level of meaning and engagement in
whatever kind of adventure you end up playing.

tl:dr
If you already know everything about everything and can’t be bothe-
red to wait and follow the book’s pace then here is a compressed
summary of the key elements at the core of this game...
At the heart of Dramatic fantasy adventuring are these elements:
• Social ties are important.
• Accountability for one’s own choices and actions is central.
• Morality is not something trite and pre-packaged, but an on-
going critical conversation with oneself.
On top of all this Fantasy World adds particular attention to
three key points:
• The Fellowship is at the centre of the game and expresses how
and why the Protagonists stay together
 fundamental knowledge

• Violence always has costs and consequences for everyone in-

volved, whether physical, emotional or social
• Player characters are the Protagonists of the emerging story
revolving around their personal Issues and Doubts
No matter how you personalise the setting, these things will
always be true...
• Magic exists
• Gods are silent
• Cities are rare
• Travel is perilous
The Common Moves (rules about PC actions) that everyone can
perform are split like so...
• Action moves = Take a Risk / Interfere / Sway
• Info moves = Look Around / Read a Person / Recall Lore
• Violence moves = Brawl / Threaten
• Adventuring moves = Journey / Long Rest / Restock
• Special moves = Epilogue / End of Session
7
The playable Fellowships are...
• Mouse Guards - local defenders and agents of the law.
• Blades in the Dark - local scoundrels and rogues.
• Pathfinders - travelling heroes on a great quest.
• Torchbearers - travelling mercenaries and treasure hunters.
The playable Classes are...
• Captain - An astute leader and a seasoned pilot on the hunt
for lost treasures and forgotten routes.
• Knight - A bastion of virtue, bestowing guidance, judgement
and retribution upon an imperfect world.
• Maker - A creative mind that thinks outside of the box, taking
on the world armed with curiosity, knowledge and technology.
• Occultist - A practitioner of arcane arts, keeper of forgotten
knowledge and wielder of sorcerous powers.
• Priest - A worker of miracles, wielding the power of religious
faith and fervor.
 chapter 1

• Scoundrel - A criminal by trade and an adventurer by vocation:

resourceful, connected, dangerous.
• Troubadour - A wAnderer and a wOnderer, shaping the world
with their art and wiles.
• Veteran - A battle-seasoned fighter, bearing the wisdom earned
in the face of Death and adversity.
• Wayfarer - A true explorer, using their expertise of plant and
beast to journey through wilderness and cities alike.
• Wildcaller - A child of the land, linked inextricably to its ele-
ments and spirits.

is this for you? yes!

Fantasy World is a tabletop roleplaying game in the PbtA family.
If you’re wondering what an RPG even is, worry not! I will
explain all you need to know to go from zero to expert in the
easiest way possible.
If you are a veteran roleplayer but are new to the ways of PbtA
games, you’re going to be fine too. I’ll show you the lay of the land,
8 the whys and hows, and all the juicy bits this kind of system has
to offer.
And if you are well-versed in many different PbtA systems, I
hope to pique your interest too. Fantasy World tosses out the
window a few things that are considered standard (or even tren-
ding) in many PbtA games, turns unspoken guidelines into explicit
procedures, and adds some original mechanics into the mix.

but, why fantasy world?

Most Powered by the Apocalypse games shine because of some
amazing idea that sits at their core. But too often they also end up
prioritising style and novelty over clarity and practicality.
A common result is that the rule-book alone is not enough to
learn how to properly play, requiring previous expertise in PbtA
systems to fully understand the game’s inner workings.
Another common problem is the lack of clarity in how some
mechanics work, leading to the need for on-the-fly negotiation
and interpretation of things that should instead be unequivocal
 fundamental knowledge

and straightforward. Moves are very susceptible to this.

This state of affairs prompted me to write a game that starts
from a simple and familiar idea, ye olde fantasy adventure, and
then focuses on being as user friendly and pragmatic as possible.
My hope is to help people better understand other PbtA games
too, how they are different, how they are similar, how they are bril-
liant and, sometimes, how they bump into problems. And to present
a few ideas of my own, to try and push the envelope a bit further.
It might not be a veritable PbtA Next... but that’s the general
direction I’m aiming for.
Enjoy!

so... what is this game?

Fantasy World is a game of narrative action, adventure and
exploration set in a fantastical world of your own devising.
It requires the presence of three to five participants.
One participant plays the role of World, while all others take
on the role of Players. Both World and Players will act in the game
through the lens of fictional characters specifically created for the 9
purpose, referred to in this text as Non Protagonist Characters
(NPCs) used by the World and as Protagonist Characters (PCs)
used by the Players.
In Fantasy World there are no winners or losers, as the aim
of the game is to experience together an engaging story of ad-
venture. Characters may fail or succeed, die or prosper. No matter
what befalls them, you “win” if the ensuing story moves ahead and
entertains the people playing at the table.
To play you need to know these rules and to have a few items
ready on hand:
• At least two six sided dice (2d6).
• Some paper and pencils and erasers.
• A printout of the Common Moves Summary (but one for each
participant is better).
• A printout of the World Summary sheet.
• A printout of the Class Playbook each Player is going to use.
• Some snacks and beverages.
 chapter 1

the act of playing

What you do at the table could be summarised as a conversation.
All participants go back and forth talking about their fictional
characters immersed in some fictional situation, describing what
they do, what they say, and what they feel, how it all looks like.
Sometimes you talk over each other and interrupt one another,
sometimes you wait for your turn to speak and allow space for
others to express themselves, and in all cases you listen and build
on each others’ ideas.
This conversation becomes a game when you add rules to
influence it. The rules define who can say something, when they
can say it, and how it can be said. They also inject uncertainty and
risk into what you say, and ensure that important narrations have
meaningful consequences.

World - There’s a shut window on the west wall.

Player - I open it. Outside I see a tall mountain and...
10 World - Err... no wait... you can only say what your PC does and
says and thinks and feels. I am the World and it’s up to me to say
what your PC sees and hears and... what’s in the world, you know?
Player - Oh, ok then, what do I see out the window?
World - Well, there actually is a mountain, why not? But it’s far
in the distance, to the west. It is day and...

how long it takes to play?

Fantasy World has no definite end.
Usually you will play for one to three hours, which is a game
session. Most likely you will have told an interesting and mea-
ningful piece of a story, but not the whole of it. Thus you will keep
building on it during future follow-up sessions. It is common to
play one session every week, but many groups do it as often or as
sparingly as they like and can.
Eventually you might reach the natural end of a story arc,
or wrap up some loose ends and decide that this is where your
 fundamental knowledge

adventure could end. This usually takes around ten sessions, and is
called game campaign. Some campaigns could be shorter, others
could take longer, some can even string together several story arcs.
Because of this, I strongly advise to gather participants with
space in their lives for this kind of commitment. Playing super-short
campaigns is possible, even ones that explore a complete story arc
in the span of a single one-shot session, but this usually requires
special arrangements to expedite things and special expertise on
the part of the World to move things along faster than usual. This
kind of play is meant more as a way to demo and showcase the
game than to actually enjoy all it has to offer, as many features can
only emerge over a longer time-span.

11
 chapter 1

knowing the rules

Fantasy World is not a pick-up or a play-as-you-read kind of
game. Before play can happen the World needs to carefully read
the whole book.
If they are willing to do some extra work, they can let the Players
start with little or no knowledge of the game, and then explain only
what is needed, when it is needed. However the game runs at its
best when everyone knows the rules.
Players are encouraged to read this book and/or to learn its
procedures through active play, and then to use such knowledge
to help the World in their job. When someone (even the World)
forgets or misunderstands some part of the rules it is everyone’s
duty to point that out and correct them.

the one golden rule

The One Golden Rule is all about personal taste and mutual respect.
12 The rule is active at all times throughout the whole game and it
simply states that everyone at the table must like what everyone
else says. What does this mean in practical terms?
The One Golden Rule is about how things are described, how
each participant tells in their own words what they imagine is
happening.
If anyone at the table thinks “this looks wrong, it feels out of
place, I don’t like it” they can and should say so. Just one unhappy
voice is all it takes to veto that specific description, with no vote
or negotiation. Just ask the minimum amount of questions to
understand what’s wrong and how best to change it.

Player - Enraged, I punch the stone wall, smashing it to bits!

World - Mmm, that’s a bit too action-movie-y for me. Could
you make it less over the top?
 fundamental knowledge

World - The town herbalist introduces himself as Dildo Fukkins...

Player - Err... seriously? Come on! It’s funny, but please come
up with a more serious name.

World - You finally reach the outskirts of the forest, with its tall
palm trees and...
Player - Wait, weren’t we on a snowy mountain? It feels weird
to have palm trees in such environment. Are you sure they are
specifically palm trees? Couldn’t they just be pines? Or something?

World - ...and then it rends the flesh from the creature’s neck.
You hear a ripping wet sound...
Player - Hmm, it’s all cool but... could you please tone down
the gore?

What it is not for

Sometimes rules make things happen: this is not disputable. 13
If a dice roll causes your PC to take damage, and you don’t like
that, the One Golden Rule can’t make you change the events to
undo the damage. At most it allows you to request that the event be
described differently: in a less graphic way or in a less humiliating/
ridiculous way or perhaps in a more dramatic way or including/
excluding some detail that is important to you. But the event takes
place as established by the rules.
Sometimes choices make something happen: this too is not
disputable.
If the World decides to perform one Reaction instead of another
and consequently describes the environment and NPCs in a certain
way, and you don’t like that, the One Golden Rule can’t make you
change events to undo the effect of the Reaction.
If a Player makes a choice and describes his PC acting accor-
dingly, and you don’t like that, the One Golden Rule can’t make
you change events to force the Player into a different choice. As
before, in either case you can request a change in the description
of how these events happen.
 chapter 1

Explicit Trust
Sometimes there could be a good in-fiction reason to offer a se-
emingly jarring and out of place description. When this reason
is clear to one participant (usually the World) but obscure to the
others (usually the Players) it’s ok to ask for a bit of leeway “Trust
me on this, they really are palm trees!”
This is an important difference with most other games, as FW
encourages Players and World to not trust each other implicitly, but
rather explicitly. It encourages everyone to always express doubts
and problems and weird sensations, so that others can acknowle-
dge them and either openly ask for some extra trust or accept the
critique and somehow address the issue.
Used sensibly, the One Golden Rule helps people listen to
each other and have a more civil and friendly game conversation,
helping everyone to voice, solve and often prevent a whole category
of very common RPG problems.

Safe Play
14 The One Golden Rule is not, strictly speaking, meant as a tool to
make the game “safer” but rather as a practice to make the game
“better” by facilitating communication among the people at the
table. That said, it can also be used as a safety instrument.
First, the One Golden Rule works as a problem-detector.
Ignoring or abusing this rule highlights who is behaving badly,
disrespectfully, disruptively. In such cases the game has to stop. No
game can fix social problems for you, so stop the game, talk it out as
human beings, possibly as friends, and try to understand each other.
Sometimes the problematic behaviour will turn out to have been
just an unintentional mistake or some sort of miscommunication.
Other times, deeper issues might emerge. Play should resume
only if possible and desirable. There is no shame in admitting that
a specific combination of people are, for whatever reason, not able
to play a certain game together. Acknowledge it, set the dice aside,
and do something else that you all can enjoy together.
Second, the One Golden Rule can be leveraged in a protective way.
Remember when we said that this rule can’t be used to change
the choices made by people at the table? This still stands, but it
 fundamental knowledge

also highlights how an argument such as “it’s not me, this is what
the character would do” has zero legs in Fantasy World. You, the
person sitting beside me, are choosing to behave in a certain way. So
while the One Golden Rule doesn’t grant the power to instantly veto
your choice without appeal it nonetheless clarifies how everything
happening at the table is because of deliberate Player and World
choices. No childish in-fiction alibis are allowed.
This, on top of training participants to give voice to their ga-
me-related needs and issues, and by providing a formal/mechanical
tool to do it, facilitates the conveying of any sort of request. So while
there are no direct tools to say “Nope, cancel this whole thing”. It is
perfectly natural to express something like “I find the thing you are
choosing to do problematic, could you please not do it?”

15
 chapter 1

the point of this game

Most other games require someone like the World to
plan a story ahead of time. Or to guide Players through
one of many possible pre-determined storybranches.
Not in Fantasy World.
It is not needed, and actually detrimental to the good
outcome of the play experience. The World is not a
storyteller. They are just a Player with different tasks.

In Fantasy World both the World and the Players share a single
true objective, one core reason to sit down and play: to find out.
Find out things about the characters. What kind of person is
my PC? What do they love and hate? What do they desire and
fear? What are they willing to do about that? What will the sad
16 farmer NPC do when confronted with this choice?
Find out things about the setting. What lies hidden in the
forest? What marvels and terrors await beyond the next hill? How
are the inhabitants of this land like me? How are they different?
What would they consider art? Are the stories about the legendary
treasure true?
Find out things about the ongoing story. Will the ork warlord
conquer the salt plains? Will the spider queen poison the eternal
fountain? Will the Fellowship save the dragon from the evil prin-
cess? Will our Priest preserve their faith?
You play because you don’t know. The answers could be anything.
Possibly something you never would have expected. Of course
you have a hand in how things play out, but you will also need to
be open to foreign ideas, be willing to be surprised, to partly let go
of what you hoped for and embrace what others put on your plate.
If you are determined to have things go your own way no matter
what, then there are going to be problems when both the rules and
the other participants eventually push back. Don’t be that person!
 fundamental knowledge

core elements
The tone and details of your campaign will depend on the mo-
ment-by-moment choices of all participants: some will go for a
bleak and gritty outlook, others will bask in the light of epic high
fantasy, others will try for comedy and hijinks, etc. That said, a few
elements will always be present in any iteration of Fantasy World.

Dramatic Fantasy
This kind of fantasy puts emphasis on social ties. Protagonists don’t
exist in a relational vacuum: they come from somewhere, they care
for something, and in general they are tied to a network of people
who have names and faces and a meaning within the Protagonists’
lives. This is then mirrored in every other character in the narrative,
be they secondary characters, random people, even animals and
monsters... and the “villains” of the story.
Another staple of this genre is personal accountability for
one’s own choices and actions. Whatever you do, or don’t do, has
an impact on other people’s lives, the consequences of which will 17
be shown by the narrative.
In dramatic fantasy the morality of actions is never inherently
and obviously good or evil. This does not mean that good and evil
do not exist, or that everything is relative and thus nothing matters.
No. Instead these stories engage the Protagonists in an open and
critical discovery of what good and evil mean for them, personally.
The gods are silent game truth has a lot to do with this element.

Fellowship
The game follows the story of a Fellowship of adventurous
Protagonists. The scene by scene action can often see each PC do
their own thing individually, but overall the Fellowship is always
united and working towards a common goal.
The emergent story might go in a direction where PCs will want
(or have) to leave the Fellowship. This is possible and interesting,
but in so doing the parting PCs will also leave active play, turning
into NPCs. Their Players will continue to play by creating new PCs
that fit the Fellowship and its goals. Theoretically, if it made sense
 chapter 1

in a hypothetical future, Players could have these ex-PGs “come

back” and regain their direct control.

Protagonism
Although the World is a very important participant, as they
literally run the world, the Players are the true engine of any story.
Right from the start their Protagonists can make a difference, push
things around and change society. But they will also face risks, be
held accountable for the consequences of their actions, and might
also fail in their endeavours.
To succeed in anything they have to act smartly and proactively.
They are offered opportunities, but it is up to them to realise or
squander them.

Violence
Violence has swift, brutal and messy consequences. Stepping into a
fight is no laughing matter, and even in victory the wounds suffered
will have a meaningful impact as there is no way to instantane-
18 ously heal them. Getting hurt is easy. Being healed is hard. This
is intentional.

Fantasy World is often much less violent than other ad-

venture games because of its serious approach to the topic.
Taken lightly, violence is meaningless and most games present
it as an effective tool to solve any problem. Taken seriously,
it puts Players in front of difficult and interesting choices
both on the tactical and the emotional level.
 fundamental knowledge

Fantasy Genres
Whether you play by referencing an outside source (a novel? a comic
book? a movie? a video game?) or an original creation to which all
participants have contributed, the important thing is to make sure
you have “adapted” it to the core elements just described.
The rest is secondary and can be rendered as you see fit. The
tone of the story can be light and hopeful, or grim and cynical. It
can feature high bombastic wizardry, or low subtle magic. You can
easily steal the trappings of other fantasy genres to tell a Fantasy
World version of those stories. All of this is made easy by the
game mechanics and doesn’t require much effort or awareness.
A Fantasy World version of Lord of the Rings would still be a
wondrous and epic journey, but without the binary morality. Fantasy
World frames everything, even animals, objects and places, as people
(I’ll explain this well later) and so Sauron, as powerful and alien
an entity as he may be, would still be presented and handled as a
person: driven by motivations, hopes, fears, meaningful relationships,
past experiences, etc. Could one bargain with Sauron? Could he be
blackmailed? Or deceived? Could he be redeemed? Could he be 19
understood? Could one be “corrupted” by his logic and worldview?
What about his followers? Are they all incapable of change?
In Tolkien’s text, the answer to all of these questions is simply
no. Evil is evil, good is good. In Fantasy World, however, these
are open-ended issues where the very act of asking the question
and pondering the answer constitutes the beating heart of the
game experience. It’s a matter of “the journey matters more than
the destination”.
Most of the Cosmere stories written by Brandon Sanderson
would fit right in, as they really are a varied patchwork of very
different narrative genres tied by them happening in the same
setting and sporting the same hard magic system: the Mistborn
book series blends elements of caper story, coming of age story, war
story, detective story, and more into one sprawling saga, made uni-
que by its peculiar metal-inspired magic. And while in Sanderson’s
universe gods can meddle quite a bit in their world’s affairs, they
are also just people: very powerful magical entities, but in no way
omnipotent, omniscient and infallible and, as such, the Protagonists’
 chapter 1

choices remain open to critique and their own sole responsibility.

The Fantasy World version of these stories would simply lean
a bit harder on this distinction, at least as far as the Protagonists
are concerned.
Harry Potter -like sagas work very well within the boundaries
of Fantasy World, and the same goes for stories like the ones
portrayed in the Dresden Files and Rivers of London series. Only,
with a focus on the ensemble of Protagonists making up a Fellowship
rather than on the individual chosen one. Similarly, narratives like the
ones from The Witcher or Game of Thrones can easily be played with
Fantasy World if only ones zooms in on the events surrounding
a single Fellowship rather than spreading out to follow multiple
separate storylines.

fluid play & breaks

Playing this game is not a performance. The show must not go on
at all costs. Winging it when rules are not clear does not usually
lead to satisfying results.
20 In Fantasy World the best way to achieve immersion, en-
gagement and fluidity of play is to take a short break whenever
needed. Fantasy World asks the participants to be creative and
spontaneous, to improvise ideas, dialogues, descriptions and im-
portant choices. The rules make such activities as easy as possible,
but play will still require energy, especially from the World. Calling
for a short break every once in a while during a session will help
everyone to stay fresh, make better choices and enjoy the game
more. Take breaks even in the midst of fast and furious fictional
action! At the table you have no need to rush: think things through,
ask for suggestions and help, or just take a breather.
With just a bit of practice the rules in this book will become
familiar and easy to use, but it’s still quite natural to sometimes
forget a detail or to have conflicting opinions on what a rule says.
Don’t argue! Instead, take a short break to check what’s in the
book. A few minutes invested in page-flipping during an early
session will help everyone learn the rules properly and promote
faster and more fluid play in future ones.
When the text fails to clarify how to use a rule, then it is
 fundamental knowledge

recommended to defer the decision to the majority of the table.

Again, don’t argue! Just lay down the options, vote, and move on. If
the vote is inconclusive, then the World breaks the tie. A lengthier
discussion about how to interpret the offending rule in future ses-
sions can and should happen after the session ends and possibly
sometime before the next play meeting. This gives everyone time
to reflect on how things went, how they would like them to go in
the future, ask online for help and clarifications, etc.

21

things to always do
While playing there are a few things that any participant can do
which will improve the game for everyone:
• Ask questions about anything. Be curious about each other’s
characters and the world around them.
• Make maps of anything. And sketches, diagrams, and any kind
of ephemera that seems interesting.
• Seriously... ask questions! The World should ask all kinds of
internal questions to the PCs (how do you feel about X, what
do you want from Y, are you being sincere with Z, etc), while
Players should ask questions about anything, especially when
 chapter 1

they feel stuck or lost and don’t have a clear idea of how to pursue
the Protagonists’ goals. The answers will often give hints about
possible next steps, pushing the game forward.

timeline of play
After you have finished reading the entire rulebook, these will be
the steps for preparing and conducting the game...

Game Prep
Decide who will play the role of World and who the Players will be.
It is necessary for each Player to have a copy of the Class
Playbook they choose to play. It is helpful for everyone to have a
copy of the Common Moves Summary.
The World must have a copy of the World Summary available
Having blank sheets of paper on which to take notes will pro-
bably be helpful to everyone. Gather your dice, pencils and erasers,
some drinks and snacks, and you’re good to go!

22 First Session
The World leads all Players through the First Session procedures,
explaining fundamental rules, helping out with the creation of each
PC, their Fellowship, and a few basic details of the game setting.
These activities are already active play as everyone is already
imagining and describing stuff, planting the seeds of future stories
and getting to know the Protagonists and the world around them,
discovering the places where their lives are unstable, tenuous, and
unpredictable. This directly feeds the World in the creation of lively
and engaging locations, characters and other game elements (all
called Agents).

Subsequent Sessions
The World builds and escalates on what happened during the
previous session, pushing the situation, following the logic of the
Agents to its conclusion, acting and reacting to the Players’ choices
and actions.
 fundamental knowledge

In Fantasy World both the World and the Players

share a single true objective, one core reason to sit
down and play: to find out.

23