It’s in times like these, when one is inaugurating the least-impressive RPG

zine to come into existence perhaps in the entire history of human society, that
one is tempted perhaps to wax (perhaps to wane) philosophical about what this
is and what’s it all about anyway? I’m afraid I don’t have answers, but I am
ANTI
willing to sit and type for a while and see what happens.
After all, haven’t I named it “Anti-Sisyphus,” and isn’t that at least some
kind of signifier, empty though it may ultimately be? I insist that I can’t be
sure, but I do have an inkling, which I will attempt to convey to you directly.
There are things—terrible, awful things—that we as yet must suffer if we
intend to tell table stories about heroes and their opposites, about derring-do
and -don’t, about treasure and what comes after. Do not mistake me, I mean
only to suggest that perhaps, upon reflection and close inspection, many of our
most beloved table games provide very little by way of—if you’ll indulge me in
coining a phrase—INDUCEMENT TO MEANING. By this I mean that, of course we
all, being human in the end and craving the deep satisfaction of a meaningful
story meaningfully told, may well find ourselves ill-equipped by those
procedures laid out in our most treasured game books to pursue such meaning
within the confines of their context. I, for one, find my own faculties in that
department, which I have brought to bear long before the start of any table
game I may participate in, far superior to most anything I’ve seen written in a
game book. I’m sure you feel the same, dear Reader.
In fact, and in fullness of candor, I must admit I find that those things for
which a given game provides procedures are often those things which are least
interesting about it. After all, what meaning is there in being provided a strict
answer by some arcane mechanism? Very little, I contend. In my estimable
estimation, I find most interesting and most meaningful those things for which
the game provides no guidance whatever. That empty space becomes a vacuum
into which meaning flows like life-giving breath.
So perhaps that is as good a thesis as any, here at the dawning of this our
first issue: if we are to set ourselves up for the likeliest chance of success in
this meaning-making business, we would be admirably served to provide
answers to exactly those questions in which we are least interested. And so it
is that we have outlined here two simple systems, in miniature, for handling
those most piddling and boring of circumstances: the buying and selling of

SISYPHUS
goods, and the tracking of light sources in the depths of the subterranean.
It is my sincerest hope that these modest tools will serve to nihilate those
portions of your game that need it, thus speeding you and your companions off
toward asking the larger and unanswerable questions hiding between the dice
rolls. I remain your humble servant, and ever in debt to your kind patronage,
Jared Sinclair
October 2019

Issue One

DICE POOL PRICING. Every item has a Value
Class that corresponds to a size of die:
• d4: Ordinary equipment and gear.
• d6: Ordinary weapons and armor.
• d8: Animals, vehicles, and odd items.
• d10: Wondrous and precious items.
For items that don’t clearly fall into one of
these categories, the GM can determine as
necessary where to put them. This Value
Class determines what dice to roll when
determining the buy/sell price of an item.
The number of syllables in the name of an
item determines how many dice to roll
when determining its buy/sell price. The
result of the roll is the price in gold.
EXAMPLE: WHEN BUYING OR SELLING A
HORSE, ROLL 1D8. THE VALUE CLASS OF
A HORSE IS D8, AND “HORSE” HAS ONE
SYLLABLE. A “WARHORSE” WOULD BE
2D8. AN “ILTHONIAN WARHORSE” WOULD
BE 6D8.
One advantage of this system is you don’t
need to track individual silvers and
coppers, or give silvers and coppers as
loot—everything is gold, or it’s
abstracted out. For items that are worth
less than a gold (for instance, if players
want to purchase an ordinary deck of
cards), I recommend just letting them
have the thing. If they really want to buy
just one torch, don’t make them roll 1d4
for it—they pay with their “pocket
change” and everyone can move on. But if
they want to buy 8 torches, then they roll
and spend the gold. Use your discretion!
OPTIONAL: YOU COULD INSTITUTE CLASSES
SMALLER THAN D4, AS WELL, IF THAT
SEEMS REASONABLE TO YOU. TO ROLL A
D3, ROLL A D6 AND DIVIDE THE TOTAL BY
2, ROUNDING UP. TO ROLL A D2, ROLL ANY
DIE: ODD NUMBERS ARE 1, AND EVEN
NUMBERS ARE 2.
You can use vendor reaction rolls to
modify this pricing system. When a PC
is buying from or selling to a vendor
for the first time, roll 2d6 plus the
negotiating PC’s Charisma modifier:
• 12+: When selling, treat all items
as having one additional syllable.
When buying, treat all items as
having one fewer syllable.
• 10-11: When selling, treat all
items as one Value Class higher.
When buying, treat all items as
one Value Class lower.
• 7-9: Dice pools remain unchanged.
• 3-6: When selling, treat all items
as one Value Class lower. When
buying, treat all items are as one
Value Class higher.
• 2-: When selling, treat all items as
having one fewer syllable. When
buying, treat all items as having TIME AND LIGHT. Whenever a PC lights a
one additional syllable. candle, torch, or lantern, etc., roll its
appropriate die in secret:
A reaction roll so obtained stands with • Torch: d6
this vendor until: • Candle: d8
• one week has passed, • Lantern: d12
• the PCs have done something
remarkable that would make the When the PCs enter a new room or have
vendor reassess their initial an encounter, tick each die down by one.
impression of the party, or When a die would tick down to 0, the
• a major change has happened in light source goes out.
the local economy.