Nasty Brutish & Long Revolutions Sheet

Taste Menu Inciting Event Clocks & Notes

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Economics
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Industry
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Magic

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Nasty Brutish & Long Rules Reference Sheet 1
POSITION
◆ Controlled: You act on your terms, or by
surprise. Exploit a dominant advantage.
◆ Risky: You act under fire, you go head-to-
head. Typical starting position.
◆ Desperate: You overreach, you’re in serious
danger or mortal peril.
DIFFICULTY RATING
◆ Difficulty 2: Something straightforward.
◆ FAILURE: No sixes. You fail to get what
◆ Difficulty 3: Challenging or taxing.
◆ Difficulty 4: Dire, complex, near impossible.
BITE THE BULLET
The player may say their character is leaning
into the action, accepting greater risk for a
better chance at success. The GM lowers the
difficulty and sets the position to be worse.
BONUS DICE
◆ Pains: For each full row of pains, take -1d.
◆ Traumas: For each relevant trauma that
would help or hinder, take +1d or -1d.
◆ Linked Actions: Spend 1 stress to add
dice from another relevant actions’ points.
◆ Aid: Other characters mark 1 stress, you
take +1d if they have points in actions you
are using. Any character aiding may also
take consequences.
◆ Resources: You get +1d for each 1
resource spent. You must say what each
represents.
◆ Special Abilities: Some of your character’s
special abilities may give you bonus dice.
ROLL RESULTS
◆ CRITICAL SUCCESS: More sixes than the
difficulty rating. Your character gets what
they want, and additional benefits equal to
the number of additional sixes.
◆ SUCCESS: As many sixes as difficulty
rating. Your character gets what they want.
◆ MIXED SUCCESS: At least one six, but
less than the difficulty rating. You must
accept an ugly situation, and the GM picks
up to one other consequence as well.
you want. The GM picks any number of
consequences to inflict.
CONSEQUENCES
◆ Break Something: One or more of the
character’s assets breaks or runs out.
◆ Complication. Some new challenge,
danger, or lingering setback. Something
takes too long, a character gets an awful
alias, things get dangerous or out of hand.
◆ Complication Clock: Start a clock
representing incoming dangers or
complications, or mark segments on a clock.
◆ Pain: The character suffers physical, mental,
or social harm.
◆ Stress: Character marks stress equal to
severity of the position.
◆ Taxes: Character loses resources equal to
the severity of the situation.
◆ Ugly Situation: You get part of what you
want, a compromise, lesser effect, or way
more than you bargained for. This is the only
consequence that cannot be resisted.
RESISTANCE
After the GM describes a consequence, a PC
may resist by saying what happens instead or
how their character reacts. If you do you can
pick a different consequence of the same
severity, or a consequence you get as part of
one of your character’s special abilities.
DECLARE A NEW NPC
If none of the NPC’s with a character sheet will
do, the player can declare an NPC:
◆ Working Class: 1 resource
◆ Middle Class: 2 resources
◆ Ruling Class: 3 resources
These NPC’s start with 3 total backgrounds.
Players can spend 1 or 2 resources to give them
1 or 2 additional backgrounds.
FORTUNE ROLL
When you need to make a decision about
something the PCs aren’t directly involved in, or
an outcome is uncertain but an action roll
doesn’t apply, make a fortune roll.
◆ Start with 1d6
◆ For each major advantage, take +1d.
◆ For each major disadvantage, take -1d.
Roll the dice and read the single highest result.
If you have 0 or negative dice, roll 2d6 and read
the lowest result instead.
◆ Multiple 6’s: Extreme result, awesome luck.
◆ 6: Good result, fortune is favourable.
◆ 4/5: Mixed result, an expected outcome.
◆ 1-3: Bad result, a dire turn of fortune.
Nasty Brutish & Long Rules Reference Sheet 2
PRINCIPLES OF PLAY
◆ Everything should get worse. All the
characters could die, and the different
revolutions and inciting event aren’t getting
better. If the PC’s do nothing, things get
worse and other factions and characters will
make the most of the changing world.
◆ Ask leading questions. Keep moving
forward and establish relevant information
as you need it. Don’t ask for permission, ask
for exciting details and follow the answers.
◆ This book is a set of tools that help you
tell a story. This isn’t a game you can win.
Don’t be a pushover but don’t try to game
the system. Engage with each other’s ideas
and build on them to create a satisfying
story for everyone at the table.
EXPERIENCE
◆ Make a desperate action roll, +1 xp.
◆ Fail an action roll, +2 xp.
Mark these at the end of each session of play:
◆ Pursue a drive, +1 xp.
◆ Complete a drive, +2 xp.
ADVANCES
When your xp track fills, clear it and
immediately take one of the following:
◆ Add 1 point to any action
◆ Create a new action and give it 1 point
◆ Add a new special ability
MAKING A CHARACTER
◆ Pick 4 total backgrounds. Start with a
born background then pick or roll for others.
◆ Distribute 6 points among actions on
your character sheet. No action can have
more than 4 points in it.
◆ Select one special ability.
◆ Buy assets. You get 3 for free and can buy
as many as you’d like. You can buy 1 fine
asset at character creation.
◆ Give your character details. Names,
titles, looks, age, and pronouns.
◆ Introduce your character. Go over all the
choices you made, ask questions of other
player character and the GM.
◆ Write 2-3 drives. Drives are one or two
sentences that describe what your character
believes and what they can do about it right
now. The inciting event is a good start point.
MAKING AN NPC
◆ Pick backgrounds. Given them an
expected background for their current role,
then 2-4 more based on their competency.
◆ Distribute 6 points among actions on
the NPC sheet. No action can have more
than 4 points in it.
◆ Give them 5 assets. Don’t spend resources
on these. Start with what we have seen so
far in the story. NPC’s don’t get fine assets.
◆ Give them character details. Names,
titles, looks, age, and pronouns. Maybe an
awful alias if it has come up in the fiction.
◆ Write 1 drive. It should relate to the
inciting event or one or more of the PC’s.
TIME PASSES
Mark clocks. The GM may start clocks or mark
progress on existing clocks representing
mounting danger or approaching obstacles.
◆ Days: 1 segment, Weeks: 2 segments,
Months: 3 segments, Year+: 5 segments
Earn Resources. Each character marks
resources according to their class and how much
time has passed.
◆ Days or Less: 1 resource, Weeks: 1 for
working, 2 for middle, 3 for ruling, Months:
2 for working, 3 for middle, 5 for ruling,
Year+: 3 for working, 5 for middle, 10 for
ruling
Clear Stress. If more than a week of time has
passed, players can spend resources to get dice
to clear their character’s stress. Roll the dice
and clear stress equal to the highest result. If
the player spends 0 resources or less than a
week of time passes, instead roll 2d6 and clear
stress equal to the lowest result.
Review Pains. For each relevant pain, clear it
based on how much time has passed. Do the
same with any marked conditions.
◆ Days: Clear level 1 pains, Weeks: Clear
level 1 and level 2 pains, Months: Clear all
Advances. If months of time have passed, any
PC with marked xp may clear their xp track and
take an advance. If years or more of time has
passed, PC’s instead get to pick a new
background from their current class, or pay 3
resources for a higher or lower class.
Review Resources. If any PC or NPC has more
than 20 resources, they mark 1 trauma.
Review Drives. Go over all PC and NPC drives.
You may modify or change drives as desired to
reflect what has happened after time passes.