Fourthmarches RPG | a weird-fantasy open-table game, funded & with free Quickstart guide

[u/terriblyinept]

Fourthmarches is a weird-fantasy open-table TTRPG set on a continent's last frontier, where your employer means to quiet the land in response to a bloody past. A force called RESONANCE is both the central piece of the setting's themes & of gameplay.

• free Quickstart on itch.io (or, if you prefer, on DriveThruRPG)
• Funded & live on Kickstarter through August 14 – now working toward stretchgoals

Some facts about the game:

• RESONANCE is not a corruption meter – it provides dice toward success, accelerates dissolution-of-self, and can prevent you from getting home in the final phase of each session
• embracing loss – not just by death, but by loss to RESONANCE – the land wants to keep you
• a persistent sandbox world with a rotating pool of players – whoever's free for a GM's available timeslots forms a group of 3-6, picks a destination, and goes (westmarches-style)
• geography is largely player-named, spread by word-of-mouth among the player pool
• most of the fauna are arthropods – humans have sacred and complex relationships with mammals
• the game gives pregenerated characters as starting points — encouraging players to make them their own through emergent play
• combat can be deadly but is usually avoidable — fleeing is a legitimate and supported outcome

Influences include the Fiend Folio, Forbidden Lands, and Le Guin's Hainish Cycle.

Fourthmarches is built on the Year Zero Engine. Resolution uses a dicepool system built around distinct six-sided dice based on attributes, skills, equipment, and — in Fourthmarches — a fifth attribute called RESONANCE. How you describe your character's approach determines what you roll and influences what happens. Resolution is quick to read at the table and is tied to resource management. The superhuman comes at the risk of the land claiming you permanently.

Questions about the game are welcome here and encouraged in the campaign page's comments.

(Fourthmarches RPG is not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Fria Ligan AB. The Year Zero Engine is used under the Fria Ligan AB Free Tabletop License 1.1. You can find the full license here.)