This SRD is organized in two parts. The first condenses all the rules of the original game so that you can easily copy/paste/adapt into your own game. The second part includes designer notes on every mechanic, as well as questions, and guidelines to help you make this system your own. Let’s start!
Before We Start
Define lines that should not be crossed. Pause or rewind the game if something uncomfortable happens during a session. Always make sure everyone is comfortable with the direction of the story.
Playing the Game
One person plays as the game moderator (GM), the rest as players.
GM’s Guidelines
- Present challenges to the group.
- Be a fan of the players.
- When in doubt, ask them questions, and fill the world with their answers.
- Make checks swift. Play with the players, not against them. If it’s cool, let them try.
- For complex challenges, or for hinting at trouble, use tracks.
- When the group’s dream or nightmare is filled, work with the group to shift the story to an interesting place.
Player’s Guidelines
- Narrate what your character does.
- Take risks, and make checks to know what happens.
- Rely on your character’s hope, skills, or areas of knowledge to even the odds stacked against you.
- Play as a group, and assist one another when facing hopeless situations.
- Give everyone a time to shine.
- Fill the world with your ideas, and make the story your own.
- Focus on your dream, and don’t fear your nightmare.
Checks
When your character tries to do something risky, you make a check to determine how it plays out.
Player’s Pool
Start with 1d6.
- If your character is skilled, or is knowledgeable in a field that relates to the action they are trying to accomplish, add a d6 to your pool.
- Spend 1 hope for an extra d6 to give it all you’ve got.
GM’s Pool
Start a discussion with the players to determine the risk and hindrances related to what they are doing.
- Start with 1d6 for a daring action.
- Increase to 2d6 for a desperate action.
- Use 3d6 for a hopeless action.
Roll
Everyone rolls their own dice pool, and compares their highest single die to the opposing highest single die.
- If the player beats the GM: It’s a success. Gain 1 hope if you didn’t spend any.
- If the player ties with the GM: It’s a success, but there’s a consequence to your action.
- If the GM beats the player: It’s a failure, and there’s a consequence to your action.
We call the final size of the player’s and GM’s pools the impact and the cost, respectively. Those can be modified by other factors, but they start as the initial number of dice rolled by each party.
Help Out
When you help out, say how you want to help, and add 1d6 to the pool of the player who is making the roll. When assisting another character, you share the same risks as them. This means both characters could end up with hindrances or narrative consequences.
Hopes
Hope is a currency that you can use to shift the odds back in your favor.
When making a check, spend 1 hope to fill your heart with determination, and add a d6 to your pool. To gain more hope, you need to beat a check against the GM. You also don’t generate hope for checks where hope was used.
Hindrances
If you fail or tie on a check, the GM can decide that you get a hindrance. A hindrance is a negative fleeting aspect attached to your character.
When making a check, the GM may increase the risk of the roll if a character’s hindrance affects the circumstances in any way. To remove a hindrance, explain how you take care of it, and wait the appropriate amount of time.
Challenges
GM, when you need to track the effort against an obstacle, introduce a challenge track. Explain what it is about, give it a name, and draw a row with 3, 5, 8, or 13 boxes on an index card. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the track.
When PCs tie or succeed at a check related to a challenge, they can mark boxes on the challenge matching the number of dice the player rolled. We call this the impact of the roll. When all the boxes are filled, the challenge is resolved. Work all together to decide what that means in the story.
Countdowns
GM, when you want to force the PCs to act quickly before things get worse, introduce a countdown track with 3, 5, 8, or 13 boxes.
When PCs tie or fail a check related to a countdown, mark boxes on the countdown matching the number of dice the GM rolled. We call this the cost of the roll. When all the boxes of the countdown are filled, something horrible happens, and the situation gets worse for everyone.
Dreams
The group’s dream is their short-term goal. Define the dream as a group, and pick a player who writes it down on their character sheet. They are now the heart of the group.
When a player succeeds or ties a check related to the group’s dream, the GM can offer that player to mark boxes on the dream track matching the impact of the roll.
Nightmares
The group’s nightmare is something the player characters dread which is in direct opposition to their dream. Once the group’s dream has been defined, find the nightmare as a group, and write it down.
When a player ties or fails a check related to the group’s nightmare, the GM can mark boxes on the nightmare track matching the cost of the roll.
Story Shift
When the group’s dream or nightmare track is filled, there is a huge shift in the story. The GM waits for the current scene to be over, fast forwards in time, and narrates how the world changes for the better or for worse, depending on which track was filled.
The filled track gets cleared, but the other track stays untouched. The group then works together to define a new dream, and a new nightmare, based on the current state of the story.
If the dream track is the track that got filled, all the PCs get a new ability from their respective kits, pick a new skill or area of knowledge, and elect a new heart of the group.
Oracle
When you want an answer to a question, and don’t want to decide for yourself, ask the oracle in the form of a yes or no question. Roll 2d6, sum the two numbers.
- On a 2-3: No, and…
- On a 4-6: No
- On a 7: Yes but…
- On a 8-10: Yes
- On a 11-12: Yes, and…
Designer Notes
This section goes over how to customize and adapt the mechanics found in this document to help you design your own game Ignited by Hopes & Dreams.
Your Game
This is your project, so you can create, update, remove all the text and mechanics found in this document in any way you want. You just need to give us attribution for our work.
Content Warning
Take the time to include a content warning section that includes the themes present in your game. Being transparent will go a long way to ensure a safe playing experience for everyone at the table.
Your Setting
Explain the setting of your game, and what the story is mainly going to focus on. Touch on the sort of challenges the PCs will encounter, the factions that inhabit the world, and the places the player characters might visit.
Your Checks
When making a check, the number of dice in the player’s pool or GM’s pool is determined via aspects affecting the action, positively or negatively.
Which aspects from the character’s kit affect a PC’s action? What happens when a PC burns hope? Are there other things apart from hindrances which can increase the risk of the GM’s pool?
Your Hopes
To help players get more narrative control in crucial moments, the system offers them this meta currency when a roll succeeds. They can then decide when is the best moment to burn it, and even the odds when things seem hopeless.
How should this be named in your game? Do you only get hope on successes? Can you spend it to clear a hindrance? Do you need hope to help someone? Are there other ways to get it back?
Your Hindrances
This system tracks character-related negative aspects through hindrances. If they apply to the fiction surrounding a particular check, hindrances are used by the GM as a tool to increase the risk of a roll.
What kind of hindrances are there? (physical harm, mental harm, reputation, resources, etc.)?
For each type of hindrance, ask yourself:
What prompts this hindrance to happen? How do you clear it off? Does it affect more than just the risk of a check?
Your Plot Tracks
The game has different plot tracks that help organize its gameplay. When completed, there is a cinematic conclusion happening in the story that changes the world or the scene.
For your game, think about the different short-term elements that you want the group to focus on, and add plot tracks either at the character, group, or story level.
Then, for each track, ask yourself:
What makes this track progress? What happens when it is filled (new aspect, new ability, new danger, etc.)? Can boxes in this track be unmarked?
Designing Kits
The core of this system relies on its kits. Those act kind of as playbooks, highlight the types of characters the players will portray, and go over which aspects and abilities make them unique and special.
Your Kit’s Aspects
Every kit comes with a set of aspects that is unique to them. At the beginning of a game, characters usually have access to 3, but might be able to get more as the game processes.
What are this kit’s unique aspects, such as skills, knowledge, inventory, allies, or something else? How many does the player have access to at character creation? How do they get new ones?
Your Kit’s Abilities
Each kit has four abilities which players can use when tackling problems in the fiction. Usually, abilities do not affect the odds of success. They instead provide new narrative liberties, boost the impact, or reduce the cost of a roll.
How many abilities does each kit have? How many abilities does a player have access to when creating their character? How can one unlock new abilities?
When making an ability, ask yourself:
What is the name of the ability? Does it allow for something new to happen in the fiction? Does it give a boost on a check’s impact? Does it reduce the cost of a check? Does it do both? Is there a cost to activate it, such as hope or hindrances?
Examples:
- Now You See Me: When surrounded, drop a smoke bomb and traverse unnoticed to a new location.
- This Won’t Hold Me: When you hit an object in the hope of breaking it, get -1 cost.
- In and Out: When entering a restricted area alone, get +1 impact on a check.
The Pilot Episode
One highlight of Hopes & Dreams is its pilot episode. The world of your game is a living and breathing thing. Since it will grow and change as your players influence it, it is helpful to establish what your world is like and what events have occurred prior to the players entering it.
To design your game’s pilot episode, write down questions you want the group to answer together:
Who are they? Why do they stick together? What was their last adventure? Where is their HQ? What is the last thing their enemies did? What has happened in the world recently? What is new with this particular faction?
Provide 3 to 6 suggestions for each question, and make it so that the players answer those questions as part of the first session of the game.
What bonds us together is
the cause - death - the family - our friends - vengeance
We have a rule, we…
we don’t hurt people - don’t kill people - protect our crew - protect the city - there are no rules
Extra Mechanics
Don’t hesitate to get rid of the stuff that doesn’t apply to your game, then add mechanics that you think will reinforce your world. Add only what is necessary, and try to tie it with the core dice mechanic to keep things homogeneous.
Attribution Text
This work is based on Hopes & Dreams, product of Fari RPGs (https://farirpgs.com/), developed and authored by René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).