A Role-Playing System by Uri Bar Lifshitz

The Dozens role-playing system comes in three flavors: Freeform, Player-driven, and Full. The aim
is for new players to start off with the Freeform version, transitioning to the Player-driven version
once they feel more comfortable, eventually graduating to the Full version.

Difference between the versions

 In Freeform the players roll whenever the GM asks for it. High is good, low is bad, and
everything else is at the GM’s discretion.
 In a Player-driven game, the players know if they succeeded or failed a roll: a result of 1-5 is a
failure, while a 6-12 is a success. Players also decide what their characters excels at, and add an
appropriate bonus to the roll.
 The Full version contains a bunch of extra rules for specific actions, such as aiding other
characters, working in opposition to other characters, and more.

Development Principles
I’ve been using Dozens for years in convention and introduction games. It’s very easy to explain
and run; a d12 is exotic for people who are unfamiliar with RPGs; critical failures and successes are
not too rare (16.6% of the rolls!); and it provides a good methodology on how to introduce an
understanding of the rules to the players while playing.

Dozens was designed with these principles in mind: Easy to learn, few rolls, single die type, and
interesting results (critical failures and successes) shouldn’t be too rare.

GM Guidelines
1. Story, fun or GM call can trump any rule at the GM discretion.
2. Risky choices should be handled by rolling a d12 and adding relevant bonuses if such exist.
3. Only roll if the result would lead to an interesting outcome, be it a success or a failure.
4. If an action’s outcome has no importance, just assume it’s a success and move on.
5. Assign bonuses, not penalties.

Freeform Dozens
If you are running a game for people who are unfamiliar with role-playing games, you probably
don’t want to start off with a long-winded explanation of the mechanics. Simply state that the
outcome of every action is determined by a roll of the 12-sided die and that a higher result is always
better.

Tell players when and why they roll (“roll the die in order to see if you manage to
climb over the electric fence”) and explain the outcome that follows the
result (“unfortunately, a 4 is not high enough. You slip and fall,
suffering a massive shock”).

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Player-driven Dozens
In Player-driven Dozens a lot of the narrative control is at the hand of the players. The players
describe their actions and the outcome is determined based on the end result of the die roll plus any
bonuses:

1 - Critical Failure - A completely terrible and unlikely result occurred. The GM will
describe the specifics, but player ideas and input should be appreciated.
2-6 - That didn’t go as planned… - You fail to accomplish your task in the manner you
planned. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you failed; you might have succeeded but
caused unforeseen complications to arise.
7-11 - Success - You succeed and do something cool!
12 - Critical Success! - You succeeded far beyond any reasonable prediction, probably by
sheer luck.

It’s important that the player knows the result of their actions immediately after the die is rolled.
The immediate feedback prevents any gap of tension between the declaration of the action and the
result.

Describing the Outcome

While the GM has the power to narrate the die’s result, by default, we suggest to give that power to
the players as often as possible. You can prompt them using phrases such as “How exactly did you
do it?”, “Give us a description” or “Why don’t you tell us how that hurt you?”.

Full Dozens
This section describes additional rules for the Dozens system.

Character Proficiencies
Each character has a specific skill they’re really good at, for which they get a +2 on their rolls. This
should be specific in a way that relates to the character, the world and the story. “Wielding the
sword of my ancestors” is a good proficiency, “Fighting” is too general.

Each character also has two things that they are kinda good at, for which they get a +1 on their
rolls.

My paladin is really good at Sword fighting (+2) and can also perform Healing touch (+1) and
Be a good listener (+1).

As for everything not covered by a character's proficiencies, the GM decides if they can or can’t do
it. As a rule of thumb, allow everyone to at least try, unless you feel the suggestion doesn’t make
sense.
Character proficiencies don't stack, only the highest apply.

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Character Background
After writing what your character is really good at and also good at, add "Because of …" and
complete the rest. For example "My paladin is really good at Sword fighting (+2) because they
we're trained by the great sword master Zilian and can also perform Healing touch
(+1) because of their strong ties with their god Odin and Be a good listener (+1) because
they grow up with five siblings".

Handling Challenges and Difficulty Rating

Any challenge that the party tries to overcome has a difficulty rating (or DR) assigned to it, the
number of successes required to overcome the challenge. If no DR is specified, assume the
challenge requires one success to overcome.

If you manage to score a number of successes equal to the DR of the challenge, it is taken out of the
conflict. If the challenge is a creature, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are dead or
unconscious; they could run away, burst into tears, start begging for their life or accept the
character’s arguments.

If a character tries to overcome a challenge but fails, you can provide a bonus to an opponent or an
ally on their next attempt. This represents taking advantage of the characters' failed attempt either
by an enemy capitulating on the failure or an ally learning from the failure and trying a new
approach. It can also represent a very limited success, one that makes the challenge somewhat less
difficult (“I loosened it up for you”).

For example, suppose there is a magical lock on a door that requires 1 success to open. A wizard
tries to unlock the door and fails. The GM decides that the wizard still managed to loosen the lock a
bit, so now any following try will have a +1 on the roll.

A challenge but can take many forms. It can refer to a single enemy (e.g. a swordsman guarding the
hallway, with DR1); a group of creatures each, with different difficulty ratings (e.g two goblins
with DR1 and a hobgoblin commander with DR3); or a whole group that operates as a unit (many
kobolds, counting together as DR5). This flexibility allows you to scale the difficulty of a challenge,
and how prominent it should be in the narrative.

Taking Damage
Harm in Dozens is abstracted, representing physical injury, emotional anguish, or an expenditure
of effort. A player character takes damage when another character rolls a success against them, or at
the GM's discretion when they fail in a risky attempt (climbing down from a tall balcony, calming a
raging bull or standing up to a bully).

NPCs don’t track damage. They are defeated after the player characters score a number of successes
equal to their DR.

As a rule, each player character can take 3 points of damage before they can no longer participate in
a scene. The exact nature of “not being able to participate” depends on the circumstances. It may
be that the character is unconscious, running away crying or paralyzed in pain.

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Aiding Other Characters
If a character is trying to collaborate with another character, have the first one make a roll, granting
the second one’s action a +1 on a success or a +4 on a critical success. If the aid action fails, add +1
to the opposition’s next action. On a natural 1 just make everything worse in any way you can
think of.

Initiative
The GM decides who goes first. If it’s not important then let the players go first. If you want to
create a sense of danger, have the monsters go first. If it’s critical to know who does something first,
have both parties make an opposed roll, the higher result wins.

Giving Bonuses
If the players do something smart or cool, reward them for it. Consider giving a +1 or +2 bonus in
the following cases:
 You can grant a bonus before attempting a specific action if a player describes something
really creative or cool (for example, swinging from the chandelier rather just taking the
stairs).
 You can grant a bonus to all of the next rolls in a specific scene (for example if all the
characters planned something together, like a well thought out back heist or if they got
some magical support for an activity).
 You can grant a bonus to all the initial rolls in a challenge (for example if the party planned
an ambush to their enemies). This is your call.

Avoid imposing penalties. If you feel an action would result with a penalty, then give a bonus to
the opponent’s next action (“you slip and now the orc has an easier time focusing on his next
attack”) or raise the number of successes needed to complete the challenge (“you twist the lock in
your hand and now it’s going to be more difficult to pick it open”).

Opposing Actions
When there’s a need to resolve an immediate conflict between two opposing characters, whether
PCs or NPCs, both roll and whoever rolled higher have their way. Such rolls can resolve issues such
as “who grabbed the magical orb first” or in case of a dual, who struck the first blow.

Note success or failures for both parties as normal. For example, a hero and a foe both reach for a
magical orb, rolling a 5 and a 2, respectfully. The hero wins the opposed roll and therefore grabs it
first; however, since the result is a failure, the GM determines that the orb then slips from the hero’s
hand, falls and rolls away.

Example of play -
Jane (the GM): OK, guys, the troll lifts his club and moves toward you, what do you do?
Aviv (Paladin): I lift my sword and swing at the vile beast (rolls a 6, adds 2 due to his “wielding my
sword for justice”). A success!
Jane (The GM): Awesome, the troll tries to counter with his club and (rolls a 3) fails, your sword
cuts the troll’s club nearly in half. You’ll need another success to finish him off.
Eran (Bard): I play an annoying tune on my bongo drums to distract the troll (rolls a 2, adds 1 for
“grabbing attention”). Damn, that’s a failure.
Jane (the GM): OK, apparently the troll knows that tune and he likes it! He becomes energized and
you’ll need 2 more successes to finish him off.

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GMing Special Effect
When running a Dozens game it is important to remember that Dozens is a system that encourages
characters success, imaginative storytelling and active participation from the players. The GM does
not have a lot of mechanical tools to influence the game. However Dozens have GMing Special
Effects. Special Effects are new rules, added to a game for a specific session or a specific campaign in
order to evoke a specific feeling for that duration. You can create your own Special Effects rules but
while doing so remember these basic guidelines: A Special Effect should have both (a) a clear game
mechanic effect on the characters and (b) evoke emotional effect on the players.
Here are some GMing Special Effects for example:

Turning of the Screw

During a session, turn to a specific player and ask "What is the worst thing that could happens to
the characters? What would really mess up their plans?" Once that player respond inform the
players that that thing actually happened. Make sure to ask each of the players this question during
that session or campaign so they will all feel that they took part in shaping the narrative.
The objective of this special effect is to create a turn for the worse in the lives of the characters,
making the story more dramatic. It also has the added value of giving the players narrative control
on the story. This effect can be used if you want to enhance the tension or give a substantial
advantage to the antagonists before letting the player characters start to overcome their opposition.
This effect is a set up for greater things to come. Think of the movie "Star Wars: the empire strike
back" as written this way. Setting up a huge obstacle for a future triumph.

Doubt (Inner Conflicts)

If a player character experienced an event that might cause them to doubt one of their proficiencies
or their place in the world such as a sudden realization or a horrifying betrayal have all positive
modifiers turn into negatives.
This special effect is meant to get a player to experience the anguish a player character feel after a
dramatic moment that cause the character to doubt their abilities or it's sources. It may give your
game an additional sense of dread or melancholy.

Heroic Spotlight
Allow each player to automatically succeed in one challenge without rolling.
This effect allow the players to have their moment in the spotlight. It can be for one character at a
time, for example as part of fast forwarding a scene where you simply allow a character to overcome
an obstacle or when an encounter is done and you let everyone describe their final action in order
to make the finale more heroic. This effect allows each player to have a moment to shine in and a
chance to show off their characters skills.

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Credits & Thanks
Game design:
Uri Lifshitz
Editing:
Eran Aviram
Playtesters:
Itamar Karbian, Aya Shacham, Israel Levin, Maria Gurevich Levin, Yotam
“Defiler” Avni, Nitsan Cohen, Uri Hadar, Avner Shahar-Kashtan, Roee Einhorn,
Eitan Godiner, Oz petrover, Dror Fishman, Stephen Mayo, Roy Kehat
Art:
"D12 image" by Uri Lifshitz, Paper texture by Lord Zsezse Works.

Created in association with On the Shoulders of Dwarves, a weekly podcast about roleplaying
games and the people who play them.

Special thanks to:

Stephen Mayo Eran Aviram

of Mayo Writer of Up To Four Players &
On the Shoulders of Dwarves

Aviv "Icel" Manoach Aviad Tal

of [Link] of Beyond the Screen

Di Amy Goodenough
of Gnome Stew of [Link]

Muse:
Maya Gershovitz Bar

© All rights reserved to Uri Lifshitz

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact uri@[Link].