“Be Free.”
To the extent possible under law, Benrob0329 has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Hello, and welcome to Uune!
Which is to say that in this game you will don the guise of fictional characters on a quest to do…whatever you want! Uune is a storytelling game, built to serve the needs of a variety of genres and styles. It is most well suited to lower and middle fantasy, punk, science fantasy, and soft scifi, but should be able to easily adapt to other genres and styles of play as well. Notably, the difficulty of the game is highly tunable to both hard, fast paced situations and longer form, slow burn ones. This allows anything from cozy games to horror to thrive within the same baseline game mechanics.
This handbook is designed to present the most important pieces of the game as concisely and accessibly as possible. It is available in HTML, PDF, and Plain Text versions on the Uune website. The source markdown files are also available for download from the version control respository, also linked from the website, should you wish to customize or distribute your own version of the game.
Notably for new players, the core game mechanics are contained entirely in the second chapter, totalling only about 5 pages. From there, you can follow the character build guide following immediately after, and chose additional features from the chapter following that.
For GMs, there are two chapters in the end of the book giving additional information on running a game with Uune. This differs somewhat from more traditional RPGs, but should prove simpler than most to get up and running.
To get started, you’ll need the following things:
Most important to any RPG are the characters, as these are the roles that we play throughout the game. Characters can be heros, villains, nobodies, or notable folks from the world of the story.
In order to play the roles of characters, we need players to do so. Most players will play a single character, known as a Player Character or PC. These are the main characters of our story, designed and decided by the players themselves.
Dressing the stage for all other events to occur is the setting, the world where the characters collectively call home. This can be a homemade worldbulding project, or something from another author.
Pulling it all together is the Game Master, or GM. This is a special player who acts as the eyes and ears of the PCs, narrating the story and events of the world as they unfold. It is the GMs job to act as referee for the group, keeping the game as grounded or as wild as the group wishes, and mediating the actions of the players accordingly.
To put some game into our roleplaying, we make use of dice to add an element of unpredictability to things. Sometimes fate wants to tell a story we didn’t forsee, and the dice allow us to sail through a story that we would have otherwise never told.
In this book, we largely make use of 6 sided dice. However, the standard dice shorthands will be used as follows: One number representing the number of dice, followed by the letter D, followed by a number representing how many sides the dice has.
Example
Uune follows a prompted, call and response style gameplay, as outlined here.
Each game session is broken down into scenes, featuring both a location and a situation that your GM will describe at the start of the scene. Afterwards, your GM will ask what your characters would like to do this scene. A scene’s scope can be big or small, depending on how your GM wishes to pace the game.
Example
The first type of scene is the goaled scene, which portrays a circumstance where there is a clear end result that the players wish to reach. These have two components to them: The pool, which is the tally of all the points you’ve collected, usually shared amongst the characters; and the goal, which is the number that your pool will need to reach before you complete the scene.
The second type is the open ended scene, which portrays a scene which is more exploratory and lacks a clear end goal. These have two similar components: The pool, which is the tally of all the points you’ve collected, usually shared amongst the characters; and the threshold, which allows the scene to progress whenever the number of points added to your pool passes the threshold (i.e. every 10 points, a clue is revealed). Your GM may also set a goal for an open ended scene, ending the scene after a set number of progressions.
The third type of scene is the cut away, which portrays a smaller portion of another scene as a larger moment in the game. These are ran as one of the two other types of scenes, but with some special rules.
If you need to determine the outcome of something purely by chance, you make a luck check. To do so, flip a coin.
Note: You can also use a six sided die for this, treating a 1 to 3 as a tails, and a 4 to 6 as a heads.
Example
Resources are dice which represent your character making use of the things throughout a scene. When you use a resource, roll 1d6 and add it to the pool for the current scene. This represents how useful the given resource is all through the scene. You can chain different resources together to make them more applicable, allowing you to roll resources that might not have seemed as useful alone.
You can only roll any specific resource once per scene, unless another mechanic says otherwise. This also applies to resources which are shared amongst a group.
Resources can be of a number of different types. Generally, if it’s something your character can actively use, it can be a resource. Some specific types are outlined below.
Various other mechanics can be used to alter the way that resources are used and rolled. These are outlined below.
Sometimes, a resource roll or luck check will be more or less likely to be helpful. Your GM may impose advantage or disadvantage depending on the circumstances.
Whenever you roll a 6 on a resource die, roll an extra die and add it to your total for this resource roll.
When the actions you take can lead to unintended side effects, your GM may ask you to make a risk check.
Make a luck check, and:
No matter the outcome, you gain karma if you do not already have it.
Note: Remember that risk can have advantage and disadvantage depending on how likely you are to experience a problem!
Throughout a scene, your characters can encounter trials and strenuous circumstances. This is represented by your character’s stress level.
Your stress is a number between 0 (no stress) and 6 (your breaking point). If you reach 6 levels of stress, your character acts rashly or slips up and your party fails the scene. Any resource rolls less than or equal to your stress level will increase your stress level by 1.
Your GM will tell you how stressful a scene is when it begins, indicating what you should set your stress level to for that scene.
Sometimes, your character will have additional effects placed on them that affect certain rolls and checks. These can be positive or negative, called boons and banes respectively. These are freehand effects that are mostly given out by your GM in response to events in the game. Boons grant advantage on related resources, luck, and risk checks, while banes grant disadvantage.
Example
Your character has various ways to interact with the game, as outlined here.
Faculties represent things inherent to your character that they can use as resources, such as skills, physical features, past experience, etc. Each faculty is comprised of one or two words of your choice that explain it. You can have whatever faculties you can think of, so long as your GM approves it beforehand.
Each faculty can only be used once per scene.
You may name 4 items that you would reasonably have on your person, which all count as resources for you. You can change what these named items are whenever you take downtime. Additional items that you pick up throughout a scene do not count against these 4, but can be kept as additional notes when relevant.
If you would like to use an unnamed item that your character might have on them, you may make a luck check to see if you have it with you. On a success, you gain a resource for this scene from that item. You can also have category items, such as a general set of hand tools. These give you advantage on luck checks for unnamed items within that category.
Finally, any items that you do not have on your person can often be purchased from a shop in most games, for an amount of money based on the item cost table in the GM’s reference.
Note: Money does not count against your named items.
Stamina represents your physical and mental fortitude. Using it means that your character is exerting themselves in some way, usually to make better use of a resource. Your character starts with 5 points of stamina. You can regain stamina during downtime.
You may spend a specified amount of stamina to gain one of the following stamina effects:
Karma represents an acquired story token from something that your character did or that happened to them. You can only ever have 1 karma at a time.
You may spend your karma at any time to give yourself a resource. Gaining a resource in this way allows you to very slightly alter the circumstances in your favor, represented by a one time resource. Each use of karma counts as a separate resource.
Bonds are elements of your character’s story and personality that are specifically called out on your character sheet. You may act on one of your bonds to gain karma from it. You may only gain karma from a given bond once per scene.
Bonds can be for a variety of things, as approved by your GM. Some examples are listed below.
Features are the extra flavor of character creation and progression. They allow you to add on new abilities, or to strengthen existing ones as your character grows and learns throughout their travels. You will mainly be taking features from the features reference, though there are some optional ones in other sections as well.
A downtime scene represents your characters doing light activity, eating, recuperating, etc, allowing you to recover your stamina and exchange your named items. These scenes are open ended, with each character having their own pool. The threshold for this depends on the living conditions your character finds themselves in.
| Living Conditions | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Luxurious | 2 |
| Comfortable | 5 |
| Sparse | 10 |
| Dire | 15 |
Interacting with the game rewards your character with experience, or XP. You gain 1 XP whenever you roll a resource, and whenever you gain stress.
Chapters represent your character’s progression through their personal journey within the story of the game. You progress to the next chapter whenever you gain enough total experience to reach it, allowing you to gain an additional feature, bond, and faculty.
See the following list for chapter XP:
Note!
If you’re unhappy with the abilities you’ve chosen, remember that you can talk to your GM about tweaking your character build. Sometimes our ideas shift, or the story takes a character in a different direction than we anticipated. That’s normal, and should not be a barrier to having fun at the table.
Building a character in Uune is a relatively straightforward process. Follow these steps to build a character in the first chapter of their story.
Uune is a character driven game. Rather than focussing on what build you want, first understand what kind of person you’d like to play.
The questions below can act as a jumping off point for you. Note that the answers given are just examples and do not need to be followed.
Once you have an idea of who they are, you’ll need to figure out who they were before. Writing a backstory not only helps you to know your character better, but also helps the GM to know how they fit into the world.
Consider the following questions:
Next, you’ll need to write out and pick all the bits for the first chapter of your character’s story.
You’ll need to fill out 2 features, 2 bonds, and 9 faculties.
Most characters will start out with the same 5 base faculties, in addition to 4 custom ones. These are outlined below:
Characters which are nonhuman, have differing senses, or otherwise would poses other base abilities should make use of an altered list of base faculties.
Finally, your character needs some stuff! Your character starts out with 4 named items that they could reasonably own and have on their person.
Roll 5d6 and multiply by one of the choices on the list below, based on how well-off your character is:
Here is a selection of core features that your characters can choose from. These are intended to be useful across most games, though they will not necessarily be applicable to every game. Be sure to talk to your GM about any that they are excluding from their game, as well as any additional ones that they might be including.
Feature: Driven
Whenever you run out of stamina, you take the “Exhaustion” bane against all rolls and checks until your next downtime scene. When you do this, you regain 4 stamina points.
Upgrade: For an additional level, when you have the Exhaustion bane, all of your stamina spent to increase a resource counts as +2, instead of +1.
Feature Build
Feature: Fast Recovery
All of your downtime resources have advantage.
Feature Build
Feature: Flawless Navigator
While present and aware at any location, you may memorize it’s position. While memorized, you can always find your way back. You may only have 1 location memorized with this ability at any given time.
Upgradable: For each additional level, you may memorize an additional location.
Feature Build
Feature: Intuitive
If you are unsure about your situation, or a course of action, you can fish for an intuition, and choose to trust your gut.
Make a luck check, and:
Feature Build
Feature: Jack of All Trades
A Jack of all trades, master of none, is often better than a master of one. All of your resources also explode on a 5.
Feature Build
Feature: Stressed Out
Whenever you gain a level of stress, you also gain a resource as it pushes you forward.
Feature Build
Feature: Collector
You are someone of peculiar interest, a collector of sorts that specializes in rare items of one kind or another. These might be magical artifacts, ritual components, books of lore, or any other niche category of item.
You gain an inventory of items limited to the nature of your specific collection, separate from your normal inventory. This inventory can hold as many items as you collect.
You start with 2 items in your collection, and can gather more as you find them.
Feature Build
Feature: Crafty
When you take this feature, name 1 type of trade or tool-set that your character would know how to use. You may craft items with this knowledge for half of their normal price.
Repeatable: You may take this feature multiple times, choosing a different trade or tool-set each time.
Feature Build
Feature: Honed
Pick either a type of item, or one of your faculties when you take this feature. You gain advantage on all resource rolls with it.
Upgrade 1: For an additional level, your resource dice explode on a 5 or a 6.
Upgrade 2: For a second level, you also gain an additional resource with it.
Repeatable: You may take this feature multiple times, choosing a different faculty or item each time.
Feature Build
Feature: Well Prepared
You can name 5 items on your person instead of 4.
Upgradable: For each additional level, you gain an additional named item.
Feature Build
Feature: Insightful
If you use a cut away to observe another character and learn at least 3 things about them, you gain a boon against them as you read more carefully into their body language.
Feature Build
Feature: Keen Ear
Whenever you eavesdrop on a conversation, make a luck check. On a success: you interpret an unspoken detail that most wouldn’t have picked up on.
Feature Build
Feature: Bloodlust
Whenever your dice explode in a fight, you regain a point of stamina. You lose this stamina once the fight is over.
Feature Build
Feature: Disarm
You gain access to the following stamina effect: For 1 stamina you may disarm another character, granting the party a boon against them for the current scene.
Feature Build
Feature: Hunter
When you take this feature, write down 1 type of creature that your character has studied. You have advantage on all resources for scenes in which you track, hunt, attack, and interact with any creature that falls within that type.
Repeatable: You may take this feature multiple times, writing down a new type of creature each time.
Feature Build
Feature: Undying
Whenever you would lose a fight, you gain 1 final resource to try to push through. This must be the final resource rolled for the fight.
Feature Build
Feature: Companion
This feature gives you a partial character (such as a trained animal) under your control.
Your companion uses a regular character sheet, but lacks features and bonds, and is in the same chapter as you.
Feature Build
Feature: Director
Whenever your team makes a detailed plan to do something, you gain a resource for every person on your team. You may spend these at any time so long as you are following the plan.
Feature Build
Feature: Teamwork
When you would gain a stamina effect, you may instead grant it to another character.
Feature Build
When you take one of these features, you gain a special pool of points called “momentum”. You may spend these points to gain any stamina effects you have access to. You may have up to 10 momentum at any given time.
You lose your momentum if you fail a scene or a risk check.
Momentum Feature: Game pusher
You gain +1 momentum when you finish a scene successfully.
Feature Build
Momentum Feature: Explosive
You gain +1 momentum when your dice explode.
Feature Build
Momentum Feature: Risk Taker
You gain +1 momentum when you succeed on a risk check.
Feature Build
Your power comes from a patron (such as a deity, daemon, or powerful ruler) to which you have gone into service or struck a deal with somehow. This being twists and ties the fates in your favor, depending on how well you serve their goals.
When you take one of these features, you gain a pool of points that represents your patron’s favor, which you may spend like stamina. You will lose your points if you violate your patron’s wishes, or don’t obey their tennets.
Feature: Patron’s Procurement
You gain points in your patron pool whenever you deliver an item to your patron of their interest. The number of points is equal to the value tier + rarity tier of the item as per the value/rarity table.
Feature Build
Feature: Patron’s Evangelism
You gain 2 points in your patron pool whenever you convert someone to the service of your patron.
Feature Build
Feature: Patron’s Vengeance
You gain 4 points in your patron pool whenever you bring justice or vengeance in your patron’s name.
Feature Build
Feature: Patron’s Aid
You gain a point in your patron pool whenever you bring aid in your patron’s name.
Feature Build
Feature: Bound Item/Companion
You magically bind an item or a companion that you already have to your person.
You gain access to the following stamina effect: For 1 point you can summon your bind. You may dismiss it at will for free.
Feature Build
Feature: Play Dead
You gain access to the following stamina effect: For 1 stamina you may put yourself into a temporary death-like state. While like this, you are limp and do not react to external stimulus. After 1d6 minutes, you regain your normal composure.
Feature Build
Feature: Portent
You gain access to the following stamina effect: For 2 stamina you may automatically succeed on a luck check.
Feature Build
Feature: Projectile Redirection
You gain access to the following stamina effects:
Feature Build
Feature: Revenant
Your soul is bound to this place, and refuses to pass on. If you are killed, your body will reanimate after 4d6 hours.
Feature Build
Feature: Transform
Write down a brief description of an alternate form, as approved by your GM.
You gain access to the following stamina effect: For 2 points you can shift into this alternate form. You may unshift for free.
Feature Build
Build custom features with the pieces here. Combine a prompt, with the needed costs, with one effect.
Remember the following rules:
Prompt: At will
For 1 cost, you can summon the effect at any time.
Prompt: Passive
For 0 cost, the effect is always applied.
Prompt: Gain stress
Providing 1 cost, whenever you gain stress, the effect happens.
Prompt: Spend stamina
For 1 cost, whenever you spend stamina, the effect happens.
Prompt: Out of stamina
For 0 cost, whenever you run out of stamina, the effect happens.
Prompt: Cut away
For 0 cost, whenever you enter a cut away the effect is applied.
Prompt: On explosion
For 1 cost, whenever your dice explode, the effect happens.
Prompt: For X in scene, Y happens X times
For 2 cost, the effect happens an equal number of times to the number of things or actions taken in a scene. You need to specify what those things / actions are.
Prompt: Gain effect
For 0 cost, whenever you gain an effect.
Prompt: Before / Succeed / Fail Risk check
For 1 cost, as specified in your feature, the effect will happen:
Prompt: Before / Succeed / Fail Luck check
For 1 cost, as specified in the feature, the effect will happen:
Prompt: Finish a scene
For 1 cost, whenever you successfully finish a scene or cut away, the effect happens.
Prompt: Fail a scene
For 0 cost, whenever you fail a scene or cut away, the effect happens.
Prompt: Finish a quest
For 0 cost, whenever you finish a story quest or similar chunk of plot, the effect happens.
Prompt: Death / Defeat of X thing
Providing 1 cost, whenever something dies or is killed, or whenever something is defeated, the effect happens.
Prompt: Gain item
For 1 cost, whenever you acquire an item, the effect happens.
Prompt: Followup
For 1 cost, this prompt can be tacked on to another feature, causing a second effect to happen if the first one occurs.
Cost: Gain a bane
You must gain a bane that you do not already have. This bane should be named and given a rough description.
If this bane is such that it applies to everything, this counts as 3 cost.
Cost: Spend stamina
You must spend a stamina.
Cost: Luck check
You must succeed on a luck check.
Cost: Risk check
You must succeed on a risk check.
Cost: Limited / Filtered
You must give the effect or the prompt a limit, or filter when / how it is applied.
Cost: Setup required
The prompt requires additional narrative setup or preparations from you before it is triggered.
Cost: Spend item
You must spend an item in order for the effect to apply. The cost provided is equal to the item rarity tier + the item value tier.
Cost: Time limited / required
Provides 1 cost.
The effect had a limited duration, or is required to persist for a certain length of time. This can be in out of game minutes; in game days, hours, or scenes; or until e.g. the next downtime scene.
Cost: Loss Trigger
Chose another prompt, you lose the effect if this prompt is triggered.
Effect: Advantage on a resource
For 1 cost, you gain advantage on a single resource.
Effect: Replenish stamina
For any cost, you replenish that much stamina.
Effect: +1 to other effect
For 0 cost, you may add +1 to another existing numerical effect.
Effect: Gain knowledge / Ask a question
You may either ask a yes or no question, or gain a fact per your GM’s discreation.
You may do this a number of times equal to the cost put into the feature.
Effect: Explosion chance improvement
For 1 cost, your resource also explodes one number lower than it would normally.
Effect: Extra resource
For 0 cost, you gain an additional resource.
Effect: Extra inventory slot
For 0 cost, you gain an additional inventory slot.
Effect: Gain boon
For 1 cost, you gain a boon. You must specify the name and description of this boon.
Effect: Apply to others
For 0 cost, you may apply the results of another mechanic to a character other than yourself.
For 1 cost, you may apply it to your entire party.
Effect: Scene change
For 1 cost, you may change something about the scene in a way that makes narrative sense.
Effect: Auxiliary character sheet
For 1 cost, you gain the use of an additional character sheet. This sheet lacks features and bonds, and is in the same chapter as you.
Effect: Gain auxiliary points
For any cost, you gain a number of points equal to the cost put in, which can be used like stamina but is tracked separately. This must be given a named type that is used to track it across features.
Effect: Gain item
For 1 cost, you gain an item that you can store in your inventory.
Effect: Lose stress
For 1 cost, you shed a level of stress. This cannot reduce your stress below 1 level.
For 2 cost, you may shed a level of stress, and this can reduce your stress below 1 level.
Effect: Succeed Luck Check
For 2 cost, you automatically succeed a luck check.
Whenever a character wants to purchase an item, you may reference the rarity table to determine it’s cost based on it’s purchase rarity and value. The table is currency agnostic and can be adapted to your specific game if need be.
| Value ↓ Rarity → | 1 - Everyday | 2 - Frequent | 3 - Common | 4 - Scarce | 5 - Rare | 6 - Exotic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - Worthless | 1 | 5 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 |
| 2 - Cheap | 5 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 500 |
| 3 - Affordable | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 500 | 1000 |
| 4 - Valuable | 25 | 50 | 100 | 500 | 1000 | 10000 |
| 5 - Expensive | 50 | 100 | 500 | 1000 | 10000 | 50000 |
| 6 - Luxury | 100 | 500 | 1000 | 10000 | 50000 | 100000 |
| d100 | Mannerism |
|---|---|
| 1 - 2 | Aggressive |
| 3 - 4 | Aloof |
| 5 - 6 | Analytical |
| 7 - 8 | Articulate |
| 9 - 10 | Arrogant |
| 11 - 12 | Artistic |
| 13 - 14 | Bold |
| 15 - 16 | Brawny |
| 17 - 18 | Charitable |
| 19 - 20 | Charming |
| 21 - 22 | Crazed |
| 23 - 24 | Confident |
| 25 - 26 | Courteous |
| 27 - 28 | Defensive |
| 29 - 30 | Diligent |
| 31 - 32 | Disheveled |
| 33 - 34 | Disrespectful |
| 35 - 36 | Dull |
| 37 - 38 | Eager |
| 39 - 40 | Energetic |
| 41 - 42 | Entitled |
| 43 - 44 | Envious |
| 45 - 46 | Empathetic |
| 47 - 48 | Fancy |
| 49 - 50 | Fake |
| 51 - 52 | Foolish |
| 53 - 54 | Genuine |
| 55 - 56 | Greedy |
| 57 - 58 | Impulsive |
| 59 - 60 | Intolerant |
| 61 - 62 | Jealous |
| 63 - 64 | Lazy |
| 65 - 66 | Modest |
| 67 - 68 | Mousy |
| 69 - 70 | Naive |
| 71 - 72 | Organized |
| 73 - 74 | Overcritical |
| 75 - 76 | Peaceful |
| 77 - 78 | Pessimistic |
| 79 - 80 | Perceptive |
| 81 - 82 | Pompous |
| 83 - 84 | Rude |
| 85 - 86 | Shady |
| 87 - 88 | Shallow |
| 89 - 90 | Stubborn |
| 91 - 92 | Tactful |
| 93 - 94 | Talented |
| 95 - 96 | Vain |
| 97 - 98 | Wizened |
| 99 - 100 | Zany |
| d100 | Interest |
|---|---|
| 1 - 2 | Antiquing |
| 3 - 4 | Archery |
| 5 - 6 | Baking |
| 7 - 8 | Biking |
| 9 - 10 | Bird Watching |
| 11 - 12 | Board Games |
| 13 - 14 | Bonsai |
| 15 - 16 | Calligraphy |
| 17 - 18 | Camping |
| 19 - 20 | Cards |
| 21 - 22 | Climbing |
| 23 - 24 | Cooking |
| 25 - 26 | Dancing |
| 27 - 28 | Decorating |
| 29 - 30 | Diving |
| 31 - 32 | Drawing |
| 33 - 34 | Embroidery |
| 35 - 36 | Gardening |
| 37 - 38 | Ham Radio |
| 39 - 40 | Hiking / Running |
| 41 - 42 | Horseback Riding |
| 43 - 44 | Improv |
| 45 - 46 | Jewelry Making |
| 47 - 48 | Kayaking |
| 49 - 50 | Knitting / Crochet |
| 51 - 52 | Leathercraft |
| 53 - 54 | Martial Arts |
| 55 - 56 | Movies / Theatre |
| 57 - 58 | Mushroom Foraging |
| 59 - 60 | Origami |
| 61 - 62 | Painting |
| 63 - 64 | Photography |
| 65 - 66 | Plant Pressing |
| 67 - 68 | Playing a Sport |
| 69 - 70 | Playing an Instrument |
| 71 - 72 | Pottery |
| 73 - 74 | Quilting |
| 75 - 76 | Reading |
| 77 - 78 | Scrapbooking |
| 79 - 80 | Singing |
| 81 - 82 | Spelunking |
| 83 - 84 | Street Art |
| 85 - 86 | Swimming |
| 87 - 88 | Tap Dancing |
| 89 - 90 | Travelling |
| 91 - 92 | Video Games |
| 93 - 94 | Volunteering |
| 95 - 96 | Woodworking |
| 97 - 98 | Writing |
| 99 - 100 | Yoga |
| Name | Preparation |
|---|---|
| Beast Bits | Roll for beast part and preparation |
| Plant Bits | Roll for plant part and preparation |
| Gems and Stones | Roll for preparation. |
| Metals | Roll for preparation. |
This is a two roll table. Roll 2d6 for the rarity, and 1d6 for the specific part.
| 2d6 | Area | Parts |
|---|---|---|
| 2 - 6 | Common |
|
| 7 - 9 | Uncommon |
|
| 10 - 11 | Rare |
|
| 12 | Very Rare |
|
| 1d6 | Part |
|---|---|
| 1 | Pedals |
| 2 | Bud |
| 3 | Bark |
| 4 | Stem |
| 5 | Seed |
| 6 | Pollen |
| 1d6 | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fresh | Must be used within 1d6 days of harvest. |
| 2 | Powdered or Pasted | Ground to a dust or spread. |
| 3 | Pickled | Preserved in vinegar or brine. |
| 4 | Fermented | Aged and preserved. |
| 5 | Tincture | Dissolved into an alcoholic mix. |
| 6 | Lying | Preserving with lye is a common way to cure certain foods. |
| 1d6 | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ore | Must be completely unrefined. |
| 2 | Powdered | Ground to a fine dust. |
| 3 | Fork | Shaped or cut into a two-pronged form. |
| 4 | Orb | Formed into a smooth, spherical shape. |
| 5 | Instrument | Must be formed into a whistle or other instrument that is sounded when used. |
| 6 | Container | Must be formed into a container of some kind, used to hold another component and cause it to be more potent. |
This chapter is intended to give Game Masters a jumping off point for running games, as well as referencable advice for the common needs within a game session. GMs can, and should, deviate from the advice here as they see fit, but it remains as an example of the most “on brand” way to run the game.
The most common task that a GM will need to do and plan for is kicking off new scenes for their players. There are a few steps involved in this, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. If you find your players floundering after trying to get the ball rolling, you may want to come back to this section and reinforce one of the steps described here.
The first step to setting up a scene is to “set the scene” for your players! Describing the environment means acting as the eyes and ears of the characters. You’ll need to narrate the tone, sights, sounds, and people within their purview. It’s important to describe enough to give a good idea of what surrounds the characters, but not so much that your players lull midway though your description. Try as they might, too much detail will cause their minds to wander and you’ll have to bring them back into the game again after.
To help with this, it’s important to first describe the background, then punctuate with a few things that stand out to the players in the foreground. Three to four items, doorways, people, sounds, etc that they should feel inclined to go interact with. This will help both set the tone, and bring players immediately into thinking about what they want to do.
The second step is to set the length of the scene. This depends on how much of the game you (and your players) wish to spend on this moment of the story. There’s usually a lot to get to in a game, so use scene length as a pacing tool to give more important scenes the chance to shine, along with the characters in those longer scenes.
For goaled scenes, the length is largely determined by the number you set the goal to.
| Length | Goal |
|---|---|
| Tiny | 5 |
| Brief | 25 |
| Substantial | 50 |
| Serious | 100 |
| Monumental | 200 |
For most open ended scenes, the length is more determined by your players and their willingness to find more resources to use. If you need to limit the length of it, consider either increasing the stress or giving is a goal to cap the number of progressions that can be had.
Note!
The length of a scene is largely a pacing tool, not a difficulty tool. While it does play into the difficulty of the game, resource scarcity is not generally an issue for players. A combination of stress with length will lead to much more satisfying challenges for your players.
If you want to lean into a resource scarcity, consider changing the circumstance that your players find themselves in to restrict their ability to use certain abilities or tools.
The third step is to set the stress of the scene. Stress is the best tool to challenge your players within a scene of any length, as even a tiny scene can sap a PC’s abilities if the stress is set high enough.
Ask yourself, how easy is it for the characters to fail? Is there the possibility of compounding error, or will one slip cause the whole thing to tumble to the ground?
This is often more about how the circumstantial threats affect any course of action, rather than one in particular. A gang of bandits is likely going to make sneaking into their camp equally as stressful as fighting them, as one mistake can still result in failure.
Finally, you need to signal to your players that you’ve kicked the ball into their court. This can be as simple as asking, “What do you do?”, but can also be a more in character question such as an NPC prompting the PCs for a destination.
Note!
Uune is inherently a game about prompting the players to action, and then seeing where they take things. You’ll often not know their exact intentions, but neither do they. Instead of trying to plan for an exact outcome, focus on setting them up with a situation, and then seeing what they do with it.
While in a scene, it is important to keep track of the resources that players use, what the total is, and who used the resource. This can be accomplished with a pad of paper, whiteboard, or computer tool. There is a spreadsheet file that will automatically total the resources entered into it on the Uune downloads page.
It’s important to remember that while a scene’s initial setup may have been fine at the start, players can and will rampantly derail things if they so choose. This is fine, and intentional.
As a GM, you have three options to respond to a scene’s mechanical setup decoupling from it’s narrative status.
First, you can apply bonuses or detriments to your players. This can be as simple as granting advantage on certain rolls or checks, or as complex as introducing a new way your players can interact with the scene.
Second, you can change the parameters of the scene itself. This means changing the length, stress, and even the type of scene if need be.
Third, you can sunset your original scene setup and reintroduce the scene as something completely different. Whether this constitutes a new scene, or a transfer of the old scene (and used abilities, resources, etc) is up to you.
Either way, you shouldn’t be afraid of adapting to the needs of your game and your players. Uune is an inherently flexible system, and it would be hypocritical to treat scenes as though they were set in stone once began.
Lastly, once the end of one scene begins, you’ll need to begin the whole process again to setup a new scene. It’s important to use this time to read your player’s intentions, and shift quickly into the next part of the game they wish to see. When in doubt, ask your players where they’d like to go next and what they’d like to accomplish.
Note!
It can be easy to fall into an awkward “sceneless scene” where players are unable to properly engage with the game. Don’t do this. Instead, set up a small transitionary scene if need be (such as an open ended exploration scene, or a brief travel scene) if you can’t move to a new setup quickly.
Running a fight in Uune is very similar to any other scene, you set a goal and allow the players to work their way through the scene. You should set the scene goal based on how important the fight is, and the stress based on how difficult the fight is. Always remember that players are creative, and will often find unpredictable ways to resolve conflicts. This is a feature, not a bug.
For more notable enemies, you should feel free to give them special abilities that affect the PCs more directly. This might be something that hurts them, limits their ability to use certain resources, or affects the environment around them.
Also note that losing a fight doesn’t always mean that the PCs die, in fact often times death isn’t the intended outcome. A robber really just wants someone’s stuff, not a murder charge, and similarly a town guard is likely going to try to detain someone if they can. While death can be the outcome, it’s not always the case. Getting captured, injured, or robbed is also a likely outcome.
Example: Enemy Abilities
The “pile of stuff” can be a tempting source of nearly infinite dice for the players. Instead of checking for every possible item, instead give your players a set number of resources per room, or possibly per collection if there are distinct collections there. You should also feel free to allow specific stand-out items separate from this, written down ahead of time in your notes when possible.
| Size of Collection | Example | Number of Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Pile | A surface | 2 |
| Heap | Shelves | 4 |
| Horde | A warehouse | 8 |
Who is requesting the party to do something?
What is the party interacting with?
How does the party need to interact with it?
Where does the party need to go?
How is the party being rewarded?
What type of motive does the villain have?
How did the villain come to be?
How does the villain enact their plans?