DARK SUN​

Player’s Guide for RQ6 “Lite”

TABLE of CONTENTS
RuneQuest 6e “Lite” Summary
Creating a Character
Beliefs, Instincts, & Goals (B.I.G.)
Skills
Races of DARK SUN
Peculiar Races
Luck
“Popcorn” Initiative
Fighting Rabble
Narrative Combat
Zones (Narrative Ranges)
Scenes (Narrative Durations)
Resource Tracking
Ammunition
Food & Water
Other Expendable Items
d100% Roll Grades
RuneQuest 6e “Lite” Summary
The goal of RQ6 lite is to reduce bookkeeping for players & DM and streamline certain
mechanics to better suit speedier online play.

● Standard Action Set​ : No Action Points. One Proactive action, one Movement
action, and finite Reactive actions at -20% cumulative penalties.
● Narrative Combat​ : You may move a reasonable distance in a Round —No “hard”
distance tracking. Ranged weapon distances use common sense increments: Very
Long, Long, Near, and Close.
● “Popcorn Initiative”​: No Strike Rank initiative tracking. Cycle turns through groups.
Individual chooses which opponent acts next until all combatants have acted.
● Simple Weapon Skills. Melee & Shooting replace combat styles. Athletics for
thrown weapons. Trained combatants receive Combat Style trait that reflects their
training/experience. Use common sense for weapon proficiency.
● Streamlined Fatigue​ Winded (-10%), ​
. ​ Tired (-20%), ​ Exhausted (-30%, reduced
movement), ​ Debilitated (-40%, slow movement, no running), and ​ Incapacitated
(Hopeless, immobile).
● d100% Success Grades​ . Success in “shades of grey” with d100% rolls.
Creating a Character

You may want to write values on a scrap sheet of paper before filling in ​
this google
character record sheet (File > make a copy). The skill base ranks are based on
formulas, which will be overridden when you insert a new value. CTRL+Z is your
friend.

1) 85 point-buy​ before​
. Allocate the 85 points ​ adding/subtracting racial modifiers.
a) Your primary characters from ​ Grave Burden are more powerful. Just use
their stats from the old campaign.
2) Assign the following skill ratings, free-form:
a) 70, ​70​,​
60, 60, 60​
,​
50, 50, 50​,​
40, 40, 40​. Do not add the generated base rank in
with these values, just assign the flat ratings. ​ Remember, once you do this,
you erase the cell’s base ​ %​formula​ , so make sure you are sure about your
 skill ranks before you fill them in. The rulebook’s ‘Careers’ section is a good
starting point for choosing skills, but you don’t have to follow them rigidly.
b) For your ​ Grave Burden™ characters, grant them 50 more skill points.
Allocate these points in increments of ‘5’, as you would when leveling up
skills. Buying a new PRO skill costs 5 points in itself (to buy one at ​ base
rank​ ).
3) Generate ​ Luck Score​ Roll 3d6 × 5​
.​ . This is your initial Luck score. It will fluctuate
throughout the campaign.
4) Generate starting money​ . In ceramic piece value:
a) If you come from a poor background, roll 4d6 × 25.
b) for a decent background, roll 4d6 × 50.
c) for a rich background, 4d6 × 75.
d) if your character is kind of broke as fuck, roll 4d6 × 10.
5) Buy starting equipment​ . Use your starting money. Use the book. Use common sense
for items not found in the book. The values of items in the book are now
considered to be in ceramic piece value (cp), instead of silver piece value (sp).
6) Choose spells/powers/talents/etc., if any​ . Follow the guidelines in the book.
Psionic characters, use this incomplete guide on Psionics that I made up​ .
Beliefs, Instincts, & Goals (B.I.G.)

Burning Wheel RPG​

This is a thing I stole from the ​ . Its purpose is to outline the most
important aspects of a character as concisely as possible and guide roleplay. ​
Beliefs
and ​
Goals are self-explanatory. Keep them short and to the point. ​
Instincts are
tendencies that are all too compelling for your character, typically stated in absolute
terms of always, never, or if/then. Come up with at least one, and maybe add more
when you get a better feel of the character later.

Some example Instincts:

“I always try to talk my way out first”

“I never leave anything peculiar uninvestigated”
“I always draw weapons at the first sign of danger”
“I never let the weakest party member go unprotected”
“If someone has something I want, then I will find a way to get it from them”
“When things go to hell, I always run”
“I will get the truth out of uncertainty, at nearly any cost”
“I never leave an oddball alone”
“I always haggle or negotiate for a better arrangement, no matter how trivial”
“If a conversation doesn’t include me, then I always drop eaves”
“I always kill first, and consider other options later”
“I’ll do anything for a stiff drink or a hit of some drug”
“I never throw anything away, even if I don’t use it”
“If I see an attractive woman, I will do anything to get her in my bed”
“I never let a contraption go untouched, I must test every new curiosity I find”
“If it looks fun and dangerous, I will probably try it”
“I never take an insult or slight very well, even if it wasn’t intentional”
“My father raised me to be honorable, but I always fight like a dirty bastard”
“I’ll never trust an elf, even if we’re ‘friends’”
“I’d drop everything to help an ally, even if it damns the objective”
“I’ll never let someone weaker than me tell me what to do”
“I’m always the the contrarian”
“I never let a wrongdoer go unpunished”
“I always hide and mislead when I want to avoid something”
“If it takes lots of effort, I’ll try to get someone else to do it for me”
“I always try to relive myself in my glory days, even if I hurt myself in the process”
“If it has a pulse, then I will eat it”
etc…
Skills
Some skills have changed or have been consolidated:
❖ Melee​. This covers all hand-to-hand weapons skill. Just use common sense for
what weapons your character would know how to use effectively. If you get
Melee above 50, you receive a combat style perk that reflects your character’s
combat method and training. You may gain a perk upgrade or addendum at 75,
and a final upgrade/addendum at 90. You can make up the perk or reference
page 135.
 ❖ Shooting​. As Melee, but with ranged weapons —not thrown weapons, that’s
Athletics.
❖ Discipline & Psionics​ Note: Psionics is a work in
. Added for psionic characters. ​
progress.

Races of DARK SUN

Select the highlighted racial trait to pull up its information. Each race also receives at
least one language at 50, though no character is literate without the Literacy skill. Your
home region determines your dialect.

Dwarf +2 STR, +4 CON, -2 CHA, SIZ 10-12

● Dwarf Senses, Focus, Stone Blood.
● Languages: ​
Common 50, Dwarven 50.

Elf +4 DEX, +3 SIZ, -2 POW

● Dune Runner, Elf Senses, Temperature Resistance.
● Languages: ​ Common 50, Elven 50.

Half-elf +2 DEX, +2 SIZ

● Estranged Looks, Heritage, Half-elf Senses.
● Languages: ​
Common 50

Half-giant +6 STR, +6 SIZ, -2 DEX, -4 INT, -2 CHA

● Erratic, Giant Flesh, Heavy Consumption.
● Languages: ​ Common 20

Halfling -2 STR, +2 DEX, +2 POW, SIZ 7-9

● Fortunate, Halfling Senses, Ridge Athletics, Superstition.
● Languages: ​
Common 20, Halfling 50.

Human +2 Any
● Skilled.
● Languages: ​
Common 50

Mul +4 STR, +2 CON, -2 CHA.

● High Pain Threshold, Mul Senses, Tireless.
● Languages: ​
Common 50/Dwarven 20 or vice versa.
 Peculiar Races

Aarakocra

Afidei +2 INT, +2 POW.

(homebrew) ● Mindsight, Natural Psionics, Shapeshift.
● Languages: ​
Common 50/Afidein 20 or vice versa.

Dray +2 STR, +4 SIZ, -2 DEX, -2 INT, +2 CHA

● Natural Weapons, Natural Armor, Temperature Resistance
● Languages: ​ Common 50, Giustenal 50

Thri-kreen +4 SIZ, +4 DEX, -4 INT, -4 CHA.

● Carapace, Insect Traits, Kreen Senses, Multiple Limbs, Venom.
● Languages: ​ Kreen 50, Common 20 (understand only)

Tolik’s +4 STR, +2 CON, +4 SIZ, -2 DEX, -2 INT, -2 CHA

Bastards
● Dwarf Senses, Erratic, Stone Blood
 

Luck
Your Luck score is your fate resource when you need to rely on pure chance. You
also “burn” Luck when you cheat fate, soak wounds, or gain an extra action. ​
You
begin play with 3d6 × 5 Luck.

❖ Chance the Plot: ​ If some random game element affecting your character should
be determined, Luck can be rolled. Usually, no Luck will need to be burned. Some
examples:
➢ A forceful sandstorm passes through. Will the fortifications hold? Roll
Luck.
➢ You find an abandoned waterskin. Is there water in it? Roll Luck.
➢ Being chased by violent nomads, you dive into a pit to hide. Does anything
lurk within? Roll Luck.
❖ Cheat Fate​ : You may burn 5 Luck points to reroll a Skill check, damage roll, or
force an opponent to reroll one of theirs. You must take the new result.
❖ Desperate Effort​: You may burn 5 Luck points to gain an extra action that Round.
If the action is reactive, you may ignore any penalties you may have taken
normally.
❖ Soak Wound​ : You may burn 20 Luck points to downgrade a Major Wound to a
Serious Wound. Your HP remains at 1 point away from a Major Wound.

Running out of Luck​

: If your Luck score drops to 0 or lower (you can have a negative
Luck score), you cannot use Luck until it is brought above 0. All Luck rolls auto fail.

Your Luck regenerates at a rate determined by the DM. Normally, you’d regain Luck
after resolutions in the story. You can exceed your starting Luck score, and Luck can
go as high as 90.
 

“Popcorn” Initiative
After surprise is determined, each combatant group will roll a d20 for initiative. If a
group has significant advantage to win initiative due to superior positioning,
preparation, weaponry, leadership, and so on, they may roll two d20s and take the
higher result.

Once determined, each round plays out as follows:

1) One individual in the leading initiative group acts first —anyone in the group can
choose to go.
a) Ranged attackers can always go first within a group ​ if no melee combatants
are engaged.
2) That player or DM chooses a combatant in the next group to act once their turn is
then​
complete; ​ repeat step 1.
​
3) Cycle through the round until everyone in each group has gone, ​ then start a new
round if combat is ongoing.

Fighting Rabble
When the party is in combat with lots of “rabble” (minions, fledglings, feeble
monsters, etc.), it won’t be necessary to track individual turns within that group.
The group of rabble will simply have an action pool equal to the amount of
Thus, a group of 8 skeleton rabble would have 8
individuals within that group. ​
actions, but any combination of those skeletons may take those actions when it is
that group’s turn. Meaning, some of the skeletons technically may act multiple
times while others may not act at all.

To speed things up even more, each group of Rabble will share the same hit point
pool. The average HP of that group represents a single foe. When damage
This means a single attack can kill
exceeds the average, one of the Rabble is slain. ​
multiple individuals in a group of Rabble.
 Narrative Combat
As opposed to total grid-based combat, here’s a reference for how I deal with
narrating combat:
 

Zones (Narrative Ranges)

A​
Zone is an abstract area described by its most distinguishing features. In a dungeon,
it could be an audience hall of crumbling pillars. In a forest, it could be a grove with a
pond and a small warm cabin. Typically, a zone is actually anywhere from 30-50 feet
or 12-15 meters in area, but the actual square footage doesn’t matter. Zones replace
measured distance tracking for movement and ranged attacks.

On your Turn, you can move anywhere within a zone, or you can move to any point
in an adjacent zone by spending your entire action. When you “cross zones” in this
way, you end up at the desired point at the start of your next Turn.

In addition to abstracting movement, ranged attacks also adhere to zones based on a

given range. For powers such as theist miracles, just wing it based on the range of the
power description.

Close​
. Can strike within a zone
Near​
. Can strike up to one zone away
Far​
. Can strike up to five zones away
Very Far​
. Can strike up to ten zones away (or more, depending)
Scenes (Narrative Durations)
A Scene is an abstract measurement of duration. Instead of counting Rounds,
Minutes, Hours, and so on, scenes go by appropriate affect:

Spot​
. A brief moment of appropriate effect. No more than five or six Rounds.
Scene​
. An entire “encounter”. A fight, a dialogue, an exploration, etc.. Scenes are
separated by transitions.
Adventuring Day​
. About 8-12 hours. The metric is based on the about how long a
party can travel in a day.

Resource Tracking

Ammunition
Ammo is tracked by how many combat encounters it will last your character. If you
have three encounter’s worth of arrows, you will run out of arrows after your third
combat scene using them, no matter how many shots you actually took. If you only fire
off an arrow here or there, it doesn’t count against your ammo supply —use common
sense.

Food & Water

These consumables will be tracked similarly, except in days.

For sake of simplicity, a waterskin for the average joe holds 24 hours worth of water.
So, if you have three full waterskins, you can stay hydrated for three days. If you are
exposed to extreme heat or engaged in strenuous activity (this includes combat) for
significant periods of time, your consumption doubles or even triples. If you are
 playing a half-giant, you will need to consume twice the normal amount of water, and
if you are playing a Thri-kreen, you’ll consume half as much.

Other Expendable Items

Things like torches, potions, and similar expendable items are tracked in ‘uses’. If you
have 4 uses of torches, then you have 4 torches. The emphasis is on ‘use’, however. So
when you light a torch to explore a tunnel, the torch simply lasts the entire tunnel
scene. If you drink the potion of darkvision, then it lasts the entire tunnel scene.
 

d100% Roll Grades

d100% rolls are no longer strict Succeed/Fail. If you “fail” within one difficulty grade
(20%), you may actually succeed at some detriment that you or someone in the group
comes up with. ​
In addition to this detriment, no Special Effects can be taken in the
case of combat rolls​
. Some examples:

● Disturb or alter the environment to your disadvantage

● Break/drop/lose/fumble an object
● Attract a monster
● Lose a Turn
● The intended effect is lessened
● Trip yourself
● Spell goes awry/produces some unintended effect
● Distract/disadvantage an ally (at their permission)
● Spaghetti​falls out of your pockets

Used in a literal example:

Aicosis the half-elf ranger attempts to fire an arrow into a carrion crawler that ambushed
his barbarian compatriot, Feng. Aicosis has Shooting 65, but rolls 79 on his d100 roll. His
player decides to hit the creature (forgoing Special Effects) and decides that the
arrowhead splinters off and disturbs a nearby patch of phosphorescent fungus, which
releases spores into the air. Next round, everyone rolls Endurance to resist the mild effects
of delirium from breathing in the airborne spores.