Master of the Rogue Spire SRD

Master of the Rogue Spire is a new take on old-school tabletop gaming from the 70s and 80s - rugged, deadly fantasy in the mold of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar, and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. These series spawned the first fantasy roleplaying games: worlds of heroes with questionable morals, dark and strange magic, where survival was the hard-fought result of extreme resourcefulness against the ever-present danger of death. Characters that rush headlong into battle will die. Injuries will not heal overnight. Expeditions must be planned. The world will chip away at the characters bit by bit unless they find a use for every random scrap of magic or wondrous item they discover along the way. If they survive, they may someday earn their place as legends like Cugel the Clever, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or Conan the Barbarian.

The Spire Master The Spire Master is an arbiter of the rules who is charged with stewarding the reality of the game. The Master is also a character - a patron who hails from another universe and bankrolls groups of adventurers - sending them off to possible death or glory. The Rogue Spire is the Master’s home and prison. Its location in any plane of existence is ephemeral, but from this vantage point the Master can see everything that takes place in the world and pull the strings of fate. The Master’s power is limited, however. Only the party is able to change the world; the Master merely reveals its contents. Every campaign in Master of the Rogue Spire should begin with the party summoned to the Master’s tower. Once there, they will take on a quest that may not seem significant but will expand over time into a saga of how the characters survive deadly trials and vicious monsters to build an indelible legacy in their world. The Party The other players control a party of adventurers in the Master’s employ. No one can be sure why the Master has sent them on their quest or what the Master’s true motivations are, but the places discovered and treasures collected are worth the hardship required to find them, even if they might not seem so at first. Each adventurer in the party has been summoned by the Spire Master. There is no greater reason needed to keep the party together, but it is helpful for each character to have some small connection to at least one other character in the group. If characters decide that this employment is too dangerous or wants to cash out their rewards, new characters are added to the group as a replacement. The Spire Master is uninterested in those characters not under contract; their stories will be told by someone else.

In the normal sequence of play, this is how the Spire Master and the players decide the outcome of any action: 1. The player decides on an action 2. The Spire Master decides the difficulty 3. The player picks a die to roll 4. The Spire Master adjusts the chosen die up or down 5. The player rolls 6. The Spire Master narrates the results Players won’t know the exact difficulty before deciding on an action, but they may ask for guidance about general difficulty before committing. The Spire Master may comment that an enemy is a trained scout, for example, and players may infer that sneaking up on that enemy will be difficult. Sometimes a player just won’t know how difficult something is until they roll. That is the nature of life and the game. The Spire Master should feel free to ask players for input or ideas when narrating results. A good Master never forces an action on a character without the player’s input. Communication is key. The point of the game is to invent a world and story together at the table. The only way to “win” the game is for everyone to have fun. Players and Spire Masters should keep that in mind as they play and they should solve disagreements amicably with a conversation or a die roll. The best solution is usually to move forward with a compromise and return after the session to hammer out the “official” ruling for that specific scenario.

Books Master of the Rogue Spire comes in three volumes: Rules for Players,(https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/300277/Master-of-the-Rogue-Spire--Volume-1-Rules-for-Players) Rules for the Master,(https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/300279/Master-of-the-Rogue-Spire--Volume-2-Rules-for-the-Master) and Monster Cyclopedia.(https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/300280/Master-of-the-Rogue-Spire--Volume-3-Monster-Cyclopedia) Only the Rules for Players is needed to fully play the game. The Rules for the Master contains numerous examples to help Spire Masters adjudicate results and randomize their worlds. The Monster Cyclopedia contains monsters with stats, background information, and fighting tactics. This information is not included in this player manual so that Spire Masters are free to keep and discard whatever they see fit to build their own world. There is also a Quickstart Guide (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265439/Master-of-the-Rogue-Spire-Quickstart-Guide)that collects this SRD, pre-constructed character sheets, and a free adventure for you to try the system out yourself! Dice There are 6 types of rollable dice in the game: D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and D20. If this nomenclature is unfamiliar, the ‘D’ stands for die and the number stands for the total number of sides on the die. Players will never need to roll more than one at a time, although the Spire Master may speed up a turn by using multiple D4s and D6s for groups of weaker enemies. Tokens Tokens are not required to play but can help players keep track of their character’s exhaustion, strain, and injuries. These tokens can be placed directly on the dice section of the character sheet during play. There are also small bonuses represented by story tokens that players can spend during the game for a small benefit. Players can use poker chips or coins, but having at least four different types or colors is recommended Character Sheets / Monster Sheets Because of the resource-based dice mechanic, it is important for players to have a character sheet in front of them or some other way to track the status of their dice. The Spire Master may also want to print out a monster’s stat block ahead of time for the same reason. Scrap Paper & Pencils Scrap paper and pencils can help players take notes and help the Spire Master track the state of multiple enemies at the same time. Computers, tablets, and phones can also be used but can be distracting so we recommend not bringing them to the table. (Optional) The Master’s Deck Many of the randomization methods in the Rules for the Master book use a custom tarot card deck called “The Master’s Deck” created specifically for use with Master of the Rogue Spire. This deck is a helpful aid but is completely optional and can be replaced with a standard tarot deck or a few dice rolls.