nancygold

[	Current Mood	|	contemplative	]
[	Current Music	|	Amid Evil (Original Game Soundtrack)	]

LD50 RPG SYSTEM

by Nancy Sadkov

LD50 is a minimalistic framework for fast-paced, high-lethality solo narrative RPGs, where the hero is expected to die.

Game Setup

1. Pick a setting with developed lore.Example:the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

2. Choose a hero.Example:Little Red Riding Hood herself.

3. Quickly describe your hero as a set of aspects.Note strengths and weaknesses. Example:

   • Red Riding Hood has intuition and starts with a basket of pies.
   • She is naive and physically weak (a child).

4. Set a starting scene.Decide where the hero begins. Example:Red Riding Hood sets off on the forest path.

5. Set an initial goal.Define what the hero is trying to achieve. Example:Deliver pies safely to grandmother.

6. Initialize CTD (Chance To Die) to 0.LD50 uses CTD instead of HP.

   • CTD represents how close the hero is to a lethal outcome; higher is worse.
   • If a (pre-modifier) roll is at or below CTD when the hero fails to overcome an obstacle, the hero dies — game over.

The Core Game Loop

1. Roll D20 Prompt two times(or use another idea generator) to produce two evocative prompts that vaguely describe what the hero perceives.

2. Interpret the prompt as an obstacle or situation your hero faces.

   • If a prompt cannot reasonably be interpreted as an obstacle, treat it as an intermission or branch in the story — record it and return to step 1.

   Examples:

   • Obstacle:Roll Change + Threat → Little Red Riding Hood sees a man turning into a werewolf on the forest road.
   • Branch:Roll Isolation + Sign → There is nobody on the road, but you hear some noise in the surrounding forest. Will you check it or stay on the road?

3. Choose an Action(what you do)and an Approach(how you do it) to address the obstacle.

4. Assign an Obstacle Resistance class(see the table below) to the chosen Action+Approach. Apply bonuses or penalties from aspects, training, or circumstances.

5. Roll d20to see if the hero overcomes the obstacle.

   • Failure rolling at or below CTD means death.

6. Resolve outcomes, boons, complications, aspects, and adjust CTD accordingly.Example: Got wounded, or the noises turned out to be hunters who scared the wolf.

7. If overcoming the obstacle completes the hero's goal, pick a new goal or conclude the game. Example:Wolf got neutralized → happy end.

D20 Prompt Table

Roll here to get inspiration for describing the world around the hero and its reaction to the hero's actions.

Actions

What action to perform at the obstacle.

Approaches

How the hero approaches that action.

Examples:

• Agilely Assault → Attempt to backstab one of the guards.
• Patiently Prepare → Set up a booby trap on the guard's patrol route.

Another example: The enemy will invade your kingdom in a month. You can bravely assault them first, or patiently prepare by strengthening your defenses, or cleverly parley by pointing out that a common enemy is waiting for both sides to weaken in war. Or you can agilely abandon your kingdom, seeking refuge in another place. Or maybe magically sneak into their castle and neutralize their leader.

Obstacle Resistance

To assess an obstacle's DC to the Action+Approach taken by your hero, use world lore and the D20 Oracle (see below).

Example: It can be hard to bravely divert a river of magma, but one can probably agilely assault (jump over it, if not too wide).

Resolution Rules:

• Attempting an obstacle involves rolling d20 and adding any modifiers (training in the chosen Action+Approach, applicable aspects, situational bonuses).
• If the combined total is below DC → your action+approach failed.
• Otherwise, you have successfully overcome the obstacle.

On Success:

• Treat odd rolls as complications. Example: You succeeded escaping wolves, but got bitten and now have acrippled legaspect.
• On success, unless some aspect prevents it, subtract DC from your roll and lower CTD by that amount. Example: You regain your breath hiding in the locker while the maniac moves away.

On Failure:

• Treat odd rolls as beneficial effects. Example: You failed to stop the maniac, but their chainsaw ran out of fuel.
• If you fail the resistance DC with roll N, subtract it from the DC, then increase CTD by that amount. Example: You face an overwhelming obstacle (DC=19), but roll 10 → add 19-10=9 to CTD. The maniac evades your attack and gains the upper hand.

Aspects & CTD:

• Some aspects may affect how CTD increases/decreases. Example: A bleeding wound may prevent CTD from decreasing until it’s treated.
• If you got maimed and are bleeding profusely, CTD won’t decrease — it will increase unless you manage to stop the bleeding.

Training:

• Each Action+Approach pair the hero is trained in grants a numeric bonus to the roll.
• Overcoming an obstacle grants 1 XP.
• After a failure, the hero may spend XP equal to their current training in that pair to increase its training. Example: You learned how to better hide in this environment, or that the maniac is stupid and can be easily distracted.

Hero Aspects:

• Specific hero aspects may give less abstract roll bonuses.

  • Example: A druid may get +1 to rolls related to survival in a forest per each 2 DC.
  • Example: A mage may cast fireball once per day, granting +1 per 2 DC against a group of monsters.

D20 Oracle

This table is used to answer clarifying yes/no questions. Pick the likelihood based on your world’s lore. Example: Hunters in Red Riding Hood are Expected to be armed.

DOOM Tokens:

• When your hero acts against their nature, give them DOOM tokens.
• DOOM is added to the d20 when “yes” would be harmful, or subtracted when “yes” would be beneficial.
• DOOM models how the hero’s world is falling apart, leading to bad situations or sanity loss.
• Hero loses 1 DOOM each time they fail an obstacle.
• DOOM count cannot exceed +7. Example: A lawful good hero robs an innocent person → +1 DOOM. Later, they get robbed themselves → -1 DOOM.

INSPIRATION Tokens:

• When the hero acts according to their virtues and flaws (e.g. a chaotic good person spends all their money to save a dying stranger), give them an INSPIRATION token.
• INSPIRATION allows the hero to reroll any d20 roll.
• A hero can have at most 1 INSPIRATION.

Example Play

1. Heroes openly confront the orcs (they Bravely Assault).

   • Goal: Release their friend held captive by the orcs (obstacle).

2. Heroes are well-trained and well-armed, but orcs come in larger numbers.

   • Obstacle Resistance: Strong (DC 15).

3. A mage starts combat with a fireball cast (crowd control aspect).

   • Bonus: +7 to overcoming the DC roll.

Possible Outcomes:

1. Heroes roll 12+7=19 (odd = negative complication).

   • Reduce CTD by (19-15)/2 = 4.
   • Heroes succeed, but one is dead, captured, or maimed, or orcs remain a big danger.
   • Next prompt must address this complication.
   • If the captive is rescued, express their presence as a new party aspect.

2. Heroes roll 13+7=20 (even).

   • Reduce CTD by (20-15)/2 = 4.
   • Heroes succeed, and the orcs are no longer a danger.
   • Unless that was the milestone, the next prompt moves them closer to the milestone.

3. Heroes roll 2+7=9 (odd = beneficial failure).

   • Increase CTD by (15-9)=6.
   • They haven’t freed the friend.
   • Roll D20 Prompt and interpret it in a beneficial way.
   • Maybe the majority of orcs were neutralized, so the next attempt has lower DC (10 or 5).

4. Heroes roll 3+7=10 (even failure).

   • Increase CTD by (15-10)=5.
   • Roll D20 Prompt and interpret it in a negative way.
   • Maybe the friend was killed, one hero maimed, or more orcs were present than expected.
   • If CTD is high, perhaps the heroes were captured.

5. Heroes roll below CTD.

   • Orcs slay all the heroes.Game over.

D8 Rooms Dungeon

Sometimes your hero explores a dangerous location — a cave, dungeon, or abandoned building. To keep play fast and structured, roll d8 to determine the number of important dungeon sections (rooms). The first room is always the entrance. Each room contains an obstacle that hinders progress.

Use the D20 Oracle to decide how rooms connect, and whether a room has traps or monsters.

Treat discovering who inhabits the dungeon as an optional obstacle, overcoming which allows you to, roll d4 + d100 to pick a monster manual page (or whatever is your source of monsters).

Example

• An archaeology professor stands before the entrance to ancient ruins.
• He attempts to Cleverly Investigate who lives there now (DC15 obstacle).
• He has strong historical knowledge → +7 bonus to the roll.
• He succeeds, so he rolls monster manual page 216 (Rakshasa in 4e D&D).
• Now he must decide if he truly wants to enter.

Closing Words

I hope you find LD50 useful for quickly roleplaying arbitrary scenarios. It embraces failure as a storytelling device, rewarding your creative interpretation of prompts and thoughtful use of the D20 Oracle.

Now what are you waiting for? Pick a hero, roll the dice, and see how long you can last.

nancygold

[

Current Mood

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contemplative

]

Here is how I see it:

• Personal transition goals → “I want to pass, stabilize my life, and reduce friction with the world.”
• Collective political expectations → “As a trans person, you owe loyalty to the movement, to activism, to representation.”
• External trolling/hostility → “You’ll never succeed; your effort is pointless.”

For someone like me, both the community’s expectations and the trolls’ taunts feel like different flavors of conscription. I never volunteered to be a soldier in anyone’s war, but both “sides” demand me play that role.

So when the “mobilization officers” (activist types) show up, they say:

• “You’re trans, so you must march with us, speak for us, and uphold our narrative.”

And when the trolls show up, they say:

• “You’ll never fully succeed, so give up or admit defeat.”

To me, both are intrusions. I just want to secure a private, livable identity — not to fight battles, not to rewrite society, not to be a mascot.

Hope that helps explain my harshness. I perceive myself as being dragged into conflicts I didn’t sign up for, while already struggling with internal challenges. So instead of aligning with one camp, I lash out at both, because for a potential conscript, all armies are the enemies.

nancygold

[

Current Mood

|

contemplative

]

The Dungeon Master was, in hindsight, a design blunder of historic proportions. That is not to deny that a skilled DM can elevate a table, occasionally even to brilliance. But the very structure of the role is a contradiction: it offers the promise of collective storytelling while vesting absolute authority in a single individual. From this seed grows most of the hobby’s dysfunction.

Let us begin with the obvious. Role-playing games were conceived as games. Games, by definition, are governed by rules, and the drama emerges when players interpret and apply those rules. To play chess, one does not require a priestly figure hovering over the board, interpreting the spirit of the bishop’s diagonal. Yet in tabletop RPGs, players have been told they cannot explore imaginary worlds unless one person dons the black robe of authority. The moment they disagree with the “judge,” the magic evaporates.

The tragedy is not that a good DM cannot exist. They can, and do, and some players are fortunate enough to find one. The tragedy is that the system assumes their existence. A mediocre or self-indulgent DM does not merely lower the quality of the experience; they transform the entire game into a theater of ego. At that point, the advertised activity—players exploring worlds, testing possibilities, and interpreting lore through agreed procedures—is lost. What remains is the DM’s story hour, with the players reduced to an obedient chorus.

The industry, alas, doubled down on this model. Companies realized that the DM was their primary customer: the one who bought the books, studied the lore, and initiated others into the rite. Instead of empowering groups to share the role of adjudication—something not only feasible but elegantly simple—they enshrined the DM as the indispensable centerpiece. In doing so, they guaranteed that the hobby would appear to outsiders as a curious cult, half game, half séance, with one celebrant summoning monsters while others gazed on. No wonder moral panics found fertile soil.

There is, however, another path. Games with shared authority, or no DM at all, demonstrate that the true joy of role-playing lies in the players themselves interpreting the world and assigning probability to events. “Can one hundred Jedi defeat Darth Vader?” becomes a matter of lore and consensus, not vetoed by narrative fiat. The answer may vary, but it will be our answer, not decreed from a self-appointed throne.

To some, this suggestion will sound like heresy. To others, it is merely common sense: when we sit down to play, the story belongs to everyone. The sooner we recognize that the Dungeon Master was never a requirement but a historical accident, the sooner the hobby can shed its cultic trappings and become what it was always meant to be—an accessible, collective exploration of imagination.

nancygold

[

Current Mood

|

amused

]

A universal storytelling game without a Game Master

1. Overview

This system is designed for simple, improvisational role-playing inspired by classics like Dungeons & Dragons, but streamlined for play without a Dungeon Master.
All players take turns guiding the story, resolving obstacles with dice, and expanding the shared narrative.

2. Preparing the Game

1. Choose a setting
   Pick any fictional world with enough lore to inspire play.
   Example: the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood.

   
   



2. Choose a hero
   Select a protagonist from this world.
   Example: Little Red Riding Hood herself.

   
   



3. Define traits
   Describe the hero’s key abilities and flaws.

   
   
   
   
   • Red Riding Hood has intuition and starts with a basket of pies.
   
   
   • She is naïve and physically weak (a child).
   
   
   
   



4. Set a starting scene
   Decide where the hero begins.
   Example: Red Riding Hood sets off on the forest path.

   
   



5. Set an initial goal
   Define what the hero is trying to achieve.
   Example: Deliver pies safely to grandmother.

   
   



6. Initialize CTD (Chance to Die)
   Start with CTD = 0. This is the threshold against which failed rolls are checked when danger is involved.

   
   

3. The Gameplay Loop

1. Generate an obstacle
   Roll once (or more) on the d20 Concept Table to inspire what the hero encounters.
   Record an interpretation in the story journal.

   
   



2. Choose approach and action
   Combine a roll on the d6 Approach Table and the d8 Action Table, or pick directly.
   This defines how the hero attempts to overcome the obstacle.

   
   



3. Set resistance
   Judge the obstacle’s difficulty using the d20 Resistance Table.

   
   



4. Attempt resolution

   
   
   
   
   • Roll 1d20.
   
   
   • Apply bonuses from relevant traits: for every 2 points of resistance, add +1 if the action clearly uses a trait.
   
   
   • Compare the total to the obstacle’s resistance (DC).
   
   
   
   



5. Check success or failure

   
   
   
   
   • Success: the obstacle is overcome. Reduce CTD by (roll – DC).
   
   
   • Failure: the attempt fails. Increase CTD by (DC – roll).
   
   
   • Death check: if a failed roll is lower than CTD and the situation is deadly, the hero dies. Game over.
   
   
   
   



6. Apply twists

   
   
   
   
   • On a successful odd roll: a complication arises. Roll d20 Concept to interpret.
   
   
   • On a failed odd roll: an unexpected relief arises. Roll d20 Concept to interpret.
   
   
   
   



7. Advance goals
   If the current goal is achieved, set a new one and repeat from step 1.

   
   

4. Tools for Storytelling

d20 Concept Table

1. End — death, failure, completion, transformation


2. Beginning — birth, awakening, opportunity


3. Conflict — war, rivalry, struggle


4. Desolation — ruin, decay, loss


5. Strength — courage, resilience, force


6. Weakness — vulnerability, flaw, need


7. Threat — danger, antagonist, uncertainty


8. Opportunity — chance, reward, luck


9. Change — evolution, growth, chaos


10. Secret — hidden knowledge, motives, places


11. Connection — bond, alliance, cause/effect


12. Isolation — solitude, exile, challenge


13. Sign — omen, clue, foreshadowing


14. Journey — travel, quest, progression


15. Loss — grief, sacrifice, destruction


16. Desire — longing, temptation, motivation


17. Chaos — unpredictability, disruption


18. Order — law, structure, destiny


19. Mystery — puzzle, hidden forces


20. Choice — decision, branching paths, consequence

d20 Oracle

For yes/no questions. Roll 1d20 against the threshold below:

• Paranormal — 25


• Surprising — 20


• Possible — 15


• Likely — 10


• Expected — 5


• Certain — 2

d8 Action Table

1. Assault — direct confrontation


2. Divert — distract, redirect


3. Sneak — bypass unnoticed


4. Parley — negotiate, persuade


5. Utilize — use item or environment


6. Prepare — set up for advantage


7. Investigate — gather more information


8. Abandon — give up on the attempt

d6 Approach Table

1. Bravely — openly, boldly


2. Agilely — quickly, skillfully


3. Cleverly — with wit, trickery


4. Empathically — through emotion or lies


5. Patiently — by waiting, enduring


6. Magically — with supernatural means

d20 Resistance Table

• Divine (30) — harming immortal cosmic beings


• Paranormal (25) — fighting ghosts with mundane means


• Overwhelming (19) — chainsaw maniac barehanded


• Strong (15) — pack of wolves


• Moderate (11) — gunfight with a clone


• Weak (8) — outrunning a crippled zombie


• Tiny (4) — hiding from distracted slasher


• None (auto) — trivial tasks

5. Narrative Currency

• Inspiration
  If a hero acts in line with their nature, they gain Inspiration: a right to reroll one die.
  Example: Red Riding Hood flees in fear to call for help.

  
  



• Doom Tokens
  If a hero acts against their nature, they gain Doom tokens.

  
  
  
  
  • Each Doom token modifies Oracle rolls (helpful answers become less certain).
  
  
  • Accumulated Doom can unlock paranormal effects: reality warps, madness sets in.
    Example: Red Riding Hood grabs a chainsaw and attacks everyone.
  
  
  
  

6. Optional Rules

• With a Game Master (GM)
  A GM can run the world: generating obstacles, making rolls, and narrating. Players only choose actions.
  Maps, dungeons, and miniatures may be added for complexity.

  
  



• Without a GM
  The group shares narrative control. Keep a brief record of important facts (Is the wolf still alive? Did Red Riding Hood get bitten?).

  
  

7. Ending the Game

The story ends when:

• The hero dies (CTD check fails),


• The group agrees the hero’s story arc is complete,


• Or everyone is satisfied with the tale told.

nancygold

[	Current Mood	|	contemplative	]
[	Current Music	|	Jeremy Souls - Silver Sails Company	]

1. Premise: Declare yourself outside the game.

• Start from a position of loss, marginality, or disqualification.


• Claim “the game is already rigged” → therefore normal incentives, goals, and rhetorical appeals don’t bind you.


• This creates status immunity: insults, shame, and appeals to ambition don’t land.

2. Adopt the “superposition” stance.

• Present every issue so that opposing interpretations reinforce each other rather than cancel.

  
  
  
  
  • Example (transsexual): “Transgenders = fetishists & bullies. Even if you prove they’re not fetishists, they’re still bullies, and vice versa.”
  
  
  • Example (black pill incel): “Women only want Chads. If you say some don’t, you’re proving hypergamy (because they must be settling).”
  
  
  
  


• Any attempt to “weaken” one claim strengthens another.


• The system is designed so it cannot be disproven, only shifted between different reinforcing explanations.

3. Pre-emptive self-deprecation.

• Own the most obvious critique of yourself before others can weaponize it (“I’m pathetic,” “I lost before the game began”).


• This grants rhetorical armor: counterarguments bounce off because they’re already admitted.


• Bonus: audiences perceive this as “honesty” or “humility,” even if it’s strategically deployed.

4. Ironman, not strawman.

• Take the opponent’s strongest arguments and accept them as true — then reinterpret them to fit your frame.


• Example: “Sure, some incels improve themselves and get partners. That only proves the game is rigged for genetic winners.”


• This forces opponents to fight uphill: their own “best case” still feeds your narrative.

5. Nihilistic reframing.

• Position all goals, values, and solutions as empty or self-deluded.


• Example: “Even if you succeed politically, you’re just enforcing another ideology.”


• Example: “Even if therapy works for you, you’re just distracting yourself from the void.”


• Outcome: opponent cannot claim “progress” without you rebranding it as denial or cope.

6. Attention parasitism.

• Engagement = validation.


• Any rebuttal proves the stance is threatening enough to warrant attention.


• Ignoring proves others are “afraid.”


• Banning proves “censorship.”


• → Opponent has no “clean” move: every response is metabolized into fuel.

7. Universal suspicion.

• Attack all sides equally (left/right, insider/outsider).


• This collapses distinctions, leaving you as the only “untainted” position.


• Creates the aura of being the “final critic” who can’t be categorized.

8. Collapse debates into tragic insight.

• End by framing the discussion not as a contest of facts, but as proof of existential futility.


• Example: “See, the very fact you’re debating me proves humans can’t escape ideology.”


• This transforms a rhetorical loss into a philosophical win: despair itself becomes the conclusion.

Applications of the Methodology

Interpersonal communication

• Useful as a defensive shield: if you position yourself as “already defeated,” you can’t be shamed or pressured.


• Useful as a conversational weapon: every attempt to advise or console can be reframed as naïve, ideological, or self-serving.

Political argument

• Positions you as a radical skeptic who unmasks everyone else’s ideology.


• Hard to counter because critics must play on your turf: everything they value (progress, rights, tradition, science) is reframed as self-delusion.


• Effective in creating a cult of tragic insight: “only we see the bleak truth.”

Epistemics / science

• Can be used as a methodological skepticism:

  
  
  
  
  • Treat every theory as a superposition of strengths/weaknesses.
  
  
  • Weakening one claim strengthens another.
  
  
  • A theory is never simply “false”; it is a self-reinforcing survival strategy.
  
  
  
  


• This can sharpen critical thinking, because you avoid cheap dismissals and force yourself to see how a worldview resists refutation.


• But if applied dogmatically, it collapses into nihilism where nothing is testable (every disproof = proof).

Strengths & Weaknesses

✅ Strengths

• Immunity to ad hominem and shame.


• Resilient against disproof (superposition stance).


• Gains aura of tragic profundity.


• Forces deeper engagement (ironmanning).

❌ Weaknesses

• Self-sealing → risks irrelevance (can’t grow or adapt).


• Alienates allies (if everyone is “cope,” there’s no solidarity).


• Parasites attention → collapses if quarantined/ignored.


• Epistemically sterile: useful for critique, poor for building.

Generalized Formula

1. Declare yourself outside the game.


2. Frame claims in a superposition (weaken one, others strengthen).


3. Pre-empt critiques with self-deprecation.


4. Ironman the opponent and flip their strongest case.


5. Reframe all progress as cope/ideology.


6. Parasitize attention: every response proves your point.


7. Attack all sides equally to appear transcendent.


8. Conclude with tragic futility: despair becomes the “truth.”

???? Meta-view: This is a rhetorical martial art of negation. It thrives in debate and diagnosis, but collapses when asked to build, collaborate, or propose. Its power is in critique and destruction; its weakness is construction.