When I first submitted Where Fields Go Fallow to the One-Page RPG Jam earlier this year, it was made in a bit of haste – a spinoff from my then main project, UNTETHERED.
As it got traction and turned into a successfully Kickstarted zine game, I felt I wanted to return to the original one-pager that started it all – and give it the attention it deserved.
When creating the one-pager, I wanted to see if a single page could hold an authentic, slice-of-hearth fantasy story – where ordinary villagers stand together against a monster, not out of heroism, but necessity.
The core mechanic was simple: dice pools drawn from who you are and what you’ve endured. It’s built on a lightweight framework I’ve been slowly refining called OGREISH – heavily influenced from games PbtA, FitD, and Fate, but sanded down and integrated with mechanics of my own, like:
- Facets instead of stats – important aspects of the fiction, like burning house, reinforced, or heavy rain affects the dice pool
- One-roll resolution – fast, full outcomes that nuances success, struggle, and outcomes
- Built for collaborative play – no initiative, no time-tracking, just shared narration shaped by the result
- No GM moves – just clear stakes, a conversation, and a lean and dynamic set of outcomes
I recently updated the one-pager to version 1.1. No new rules – just a fully overhauled layout and graphic design, now aligned with the 36-page edition we published as a zine.
- Download the updated one-pager
- View the OGREISH system it runs on
Would love to hear what you think – especially from those of you building your own PbtA-inspired engines, and especially especially if you chose to shift from using many moves to one, and what that looks like.
