BIND RPG

BIND is an open-source, grunge-fantasy RPG, designed for printing .

Fenestra is a world built on a single question.

How would people farm in a world of wandering monsters?

In the myriad walled baileys, archers guard the fields and the farmers during daylight. When night comes, people bar their doors, as large predators crawl across their rooves, and feel over the little house for an opening.

And someone has to guard the barrier between civilization and the predators in the dark. Someone has to walk with the traders from the baileys to the town. So the town sends their unwanted, unwashed, their scamps, cretins, and political upstarts. And all of them die heroes in the Night Guard.

Rules

Every action uses 2D6 + Attribute + Skill.
Every Skill can be used with each Attribute (but some combinations are more useful than others).

	Strength +2	Dexterity +0	Speed -1
Academics (1)	Orating to a crowd (+3)	Forgery (+1)	Courier Runs (+0)
Athletics (0)	Lifting heavy loads (+2)	Climbing (+0)	Sprinting (-1)
Stealth (2)	Hiding in a hay bail (+4)	Moving quietly (+2)	Escaping into a crowd (+1)
Vigilance (1)	Keeping a vigil (+3)	Groping for something (+1)	Combing through a forest (+0)

With six Attributes and four Skills (6 x 4), the character sheet implies twenty-four different tasks.

Players roll to beat the Tie Number whenever attempting something difficult and dangerous.
- Roll over, and they succeed.
- Roll under, and suffer the danger.
- Roll a tie and the result is both or neither.

BIND Starter Packs

Each starter pack has everything needed for a game. Each one has around ten double-sided pages.

The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure booklet introduces Fenestra, and the rules.
The ‘halfshot’ mini-zine has a short story, on one folded page.
Four pre-generated characters with each module mean you should have spare characters for when one dies.
The rules mini-zine have enough for a basic game.
The markets let players experience the world through the magic of shopping on a budget.

Pick a Starter Pack

The Goblin Hole

The characters enter a cave to kill goblins. A completely normal cave.

Narrow tunnels extend for miles, and every torch makes the air thinner until hypoxia sets in. Hours later, and they haven’t seen a single goblin; the goblins wait silenlty until the PCs crawl through passages so narrow that they can barely move their arms, then slit their throats or start a dirty fire, and send smoke up to greet them as they descend.

The rules at the start have extra notes on handling hypoxia and walking in darkness.
An example of play litters the text in floating chunks.
Two pre-generated characters per-player will ensure they understand that this module is lethal.
The rules mini-zine gives the players access to all the basic rules.
The metro-style map shows 13 miles of tunnels.
All dangers come with DIN standard safety signs showing gas-leaks, basilisks, and goblins.

Print The Goblin Hole

Oneshot: Escape from the Goblin Horde

Goblins have invaded a gnomish warren, but can’t return home, so they are forced to raid nearby human villages for food, such as humans. The PCs have been captured, and awaken bound in a cell, with nothing but their clothes, and a depressed prisoner, waiting to die. If the PCs can give that prisoner a little hope, he helps them break free.

Here is an example of play.

The book contains everything needed for game.

Complete rules come included at the start.
The rules mini-zine gives the players access to all the basic rules.
Statblocks for prisoners mean the players can try to free prisoners, and amass allies.
Lots of pre-generated characters let the players pick up a new character if their first dies.
In-world maps come ready to tear out of the module and hand to players.

Print Escape from the Goblin Horde

Stories

The Book of Stories lets players create their character’s history in short, relevant, chunks, by spending their 5 Story Points.

Each Story Point introduces a current advantage, like ‘how I learned Dwarvish’, or ‘my friend and ally, who will join us for this mission’.
The allies form a pool of backup-characters, for when the first one dies.
More extensive rules for allies let players craft their own characters.

Print the Book of Stories

Extended Core Rules

The Complete Core Rules bring all the bespoke rules from all the modules into a single place, for reference and expansion.

Precise definitions and mulitple examples clarify each Trait.
Myriad combat rules will make you say ‘why isn’t this standard?’.
The chapter on spells gives a long-form explanation for edge-cases.
All the Knacks!
Complete indeces for spells, actions, and everything else allows easy searches.

Print BIND Extended Core Rules

Judgement

The Book of Judgement describes the world of Fenestra using D6 tables.

Random tables construct a 10-point map.
Each point has further tables to flesh out the town/ bailey/ lost city/ hag’s cottage.
Random tables generate missions for the Night Guard.
Monsters? Yes.
Fenestra has only a dozen large predators, so the bestiary has space to discuss ecology, from hibernation to mating calls.
Ecological details on the wandering monsters, from hibernation habits to mating calls.
The chapter on constructs explains how the world looks to an undead creature or sentient sword.
The divine monopolies of temples-as-guilds receives more explanation, but remains completely unreasonable.

Print the Book of Judgement

Missions in Maitavale

Missions in Maitavale is a full chronicle, crafted with a dozen smaller Threads, all woven together.

Print Missions in Maitavale