Hexen

Hexen is my attempt at creating a fun and rule-light generic tabletop RPG system built on the concept of hexagons. It's very much an in-progress prototype, and was purposefully written as simply as possible to fit on one page, a challenge I gave myself to focus on the core mechanics first.

The game is all about moving hexagons – hexes – around a board to create combinations of descriptors that match the current action. The game is played using d12s (they're almost hexagons, close enough!). For each adjacent hex that matches the action, you roll one d12. If one die rolls between 8 and 12, you succeed. The GM may require multiple successes.

Your character is defined exclusively with hexes, the hexagonal board is your character sheet. Any equipment, skills, abilities, or powers your character has is written on hex groups, and placed on your board. Whenever you take conditions (such as wounds) due to failing a roll, that's also a group of hexes you must place on your board. As you gain conditions, you'll start to run out of space and will have to make choices as to which hexes will be covered by the condition hexes. If your center hex gets covered, you're taken out.

You can also gain Hexen points by putting yourself in trouble on purpose, which can then be used to make future rolls easier. Like everything else, Hexen points are a hex you must place on your board! Do you choose to remove a useful skill to store a Hexen point? Or do you instead want to lose a Hexen point to a condition, but keep that useful skill? Making these tough choices with the limited space on your character grid is the core of Hexen.

Please let me know if you end up playtesting this game, I'd love to know how it went. Look forward to updates to the game in the future, which are likely to increase its page count to more than 1!

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This game was originally planned for the "Shit Or Get Off the Pot: A Solo Game Jam", until I realized that the name meant games played by one person, not designed by one person! Faced with this massive mistake, I decided to run my own solo-dev game jam where I design and release 10 imperfect one-page Tabletop RPGs as a solo game designer in a month. Maybe that'll become a real jam one day!

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Feel free to share feedback or design ideas in the comment, I can't wait to read them. The game was created with the intent of releasing something, even if it's not as perfect as it could be. My goal is to release something this month, hopefully one of those games is up your alley.

Available files: 

• Contrast-heavy legal sized version of the game, not recommended for printers.
• Printer friendly version of the game, with some light colours.
• Character sheet, including the hex grid, for players to create their characters.