Read this Book First!

DROWNING & FALLING

THE FANTASY ROLE-PLAYING GAME
OF ADVENTURE AND DEATH
FROM DROWNING AND FALLING
COPYRIGHT NOTICE Table of Contents
The Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Game
text is copyright 2006 Jason Morningstar. Learning to play DROWNING & FALLING games 2
Additional bits of fiction, where attributed, are
copyright their respective authors.
Start Here
The saga of Fyren Cloudfather
This work is licensed under the Creative Preparing for the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- Part One: Of Men and Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
ShareAlike 2.5 License. To view a copy of this Making up a guy
license, visit Generating your traits
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ Helpful traits
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Harmful traits
Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, What's up with the weird combos?
California, 94105, USA. Hit points: Staying alive
Alignment: Staying focused . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
CREDITS
Character class: Staying classy
Off-hand inspirational comment: Andy
Kitkowski The birth of Gwarl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Game design: Jason Morningstar Magic
Production Editor: Steve Segedy Prayers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Copy Editor: Autumn Winters Advancement and not advancement
Gwarl levels up anddown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
With major contributions by Joshua BishopRoby, Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Piers Brown, Alex Fradera, Christian Griffen, Getting hurt
Bryan Hansel, Maura Hogan, Scott Morningstar, What if a character gets strangled or burned? . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Clinton R. Nixon, Dev Perkayastha, Eric Provost, Part Two: Underworld and wilderness adventures 9
Lisa Provost and Remi Treuer. Creating challenges
Clemont throws down some challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Additional ideas and pithy suggestions from the
Challenge suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
good people of story-games.com, including
Getting drunk and staying drunk
Brendan Adkins, Adam Biltcliffe, Eric J. Boyd,
Monsters and treasure
Stuart Broz, Paul Czege, Chris Goodwin, John
Harper, Jonas Karlsson, Andy Kitkowski, Levi A monster fighting example
Kornelsen, Judson Lester, Ben Lehman, Tony The Monster Cyclopedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Lower-Basch, Matt Machell, Dave Michael, Getting treasure
Bradley Robins, Jeffrey Schecter, Brennan Taylor, Stealing treasure
Graham Walmsley, and Fred Wolke. Exploring
Picking challenges and running out of options . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
BENEFICIARY A final word about winners and losers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
All proceeds from sales of this game, after taxes Appendices and notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
and production costs, will be donated to ORBIS Appendix A: Sample campaign settings
International. The mission of ORBIS is to Gorgon hunters of Gorgon Island
eliminate avoidable blindness and restore sight in
The Edge
the developing world, where 90% of the world's
Appendix B: Torpid emo ballad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
blind live. They do this in part by operating a
Appendix C: Treasure generator
completely awesome flying eye hospital in a
converted DC-10. Designer's notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Visit ORBIS on the Web at

http://www.orbis.org/
to learn more. If you bought this game, you've
already helped them out!
Learning how to play DROWNING & FALLING games

Start Here Preparing for the Game

There is a world far from here - a world like our own, but The Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Game is best
completely different. A gritty medieval world of magic and played with a bunch of people - you and all your
mystery with enchanted creatures, drowning, and falling! friends. Playing with three is the bare minimum, and
Are you brave enough to face the danger? Do you enjoy it really starts to get fun with five or six participants.
killing monsters? Do you like acquiring treasure? Do you
have good balance and a decent Australian crawl? If so, As a group, you'll need:
prepare to test your mettle against the sorts of devilish • A place to play.
challenges your friends tend to create, because only the • Some post-it notes for finished challenges
best heroes will emerge victorious in the savage world of and treasure.
Drowning and Falling! • A standard deck of cards for creating
challenges.
• Snacks.
The saga of Fyren Cloudfather
By Bryan Hansel Each player ought to have:
• A pair of standard six-sided dice.
Fyren Cloudfloater stood at the edge of the precipice and • A pencil.
stared down into the rushing water below. Behind her, • A Drowning and Falling Characters Sheet, or
slowly climbing down the cliff that separated her and her some scratch paper.
men from the safety of the plateau, a mass of an amorphous
blob slowly climbed down. Fyren pulled her mace from its Group preparation consists of giving each player
sheath with a quick jerk and loud swoosh, and the sound of some playing cards, with which you will all create
the mace rung into her ears and into her mind. She challenges by writing them on post-it notes. The
remembered back to her childhood when the mace now in rules for creating challenges are in Part Six:
her hand belonged to her father, Besyrwan the Underworld And Wilderness Adventures.
Waterwalker. On the last day of her father's life, Fyren Individual preparation consists of making up a
watched him walk across the water and before she could) character, and then making up a few more as backups.
warn her father, she saw a cliff shark fall out of its nest and It's pretty easy, so always try to keep a spare around -
land in the water. The wave quickly splashed, rolled, and that's why it's called a characters sheet.
turned as a frothy white bubbling gurgle until it rolled over
her father.

Besyrwan was no more.

Days later, the waterlogged corpse floated to the shore and

Fyren retrieved the mace, her father's mace. It was that
fateful day, when her father drown from the wave created
by the falling cliff shark, that Fyren vowed to carry her
father's mace and fight the forces that would cause the
drowning and falling.
Awaking from her remembrance, Fyren took a final look
into the Canyon of Falling Rocks and turned towards the
blob -- now closer. She knew in his heart that if this blob
approached any closer, she would be forced off the cliff,
and she would fall to her death in the frothy whitewater
below. Would she drown or die from the fall, she didn't
know, but Fyren didn't want to find out.
At the top of her lungs, Fyren called out, "Men, fight! Fight
for your lives, or I'll throw you over the edge myself."
The other adventures pulled their swords and axes and
readied their spell books. They all joined the battle cry, "I
will not drown or fall!" They rushed the slowly climbing
amorphous blob with Fyren in the lead.
Part One: Of Men and Magic

The life of an adventurer in the Drowning and Falling Tough is a measure of a character's ability to absorb
Role-Playing Game is fraught with peril - deadly peril that punishment - a measure of toughness, if you will.
can kill you! The characters sheet includes space for Strong is pretty self-explanatory. Do I really need to
multiple guys, and you might want to roll up a few in get into what being strong is all about?
advance, just to be sure. Everybody plays one at a time,
though. Harmful traits
Making up a guy The harmful traits are Pathetic, Unlucky, Clumsy,
Oblivious, and Weak.
Every character in the Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Pathetic includes all things dorky and embarrassing.
Game is as unique as a snowflake - having fifteen different For example, if your character plays role-playing
traits makes it possible! These fifteen traits are divided games other than The Drowning and Falling Role-
into two categories - helpful and harmful. Playing Game, his Pathetic is probably high.

Generating your traits Unlucky refers to general ill fortune. The character
with a high Unlucky will be a cosmic whipping boy.
Trait generation is random. Roll a six sided die for each Clumsy refers to a character's lack of agility,
trait and write the result next to it. For your ten helpful dexterity, nimbleness and adroitness.
traits, higher is better. For your five harmful traits, lower is Oblivious is a measure of all-around cluelessness,
better. If you are lucky you will have a better character absent-mindedness, and lack of observational skill.
than your friend who is unlucky. It is all in the implacable Weak, like strong, is pretty self-explanatory.
hands of fate!
What's up with the weird combos?
If you have fifteen dice handy, you can roll all your traits in
one gigantic mega-throw! Just toss them all, then line Clumsy-5 and Agile-6? It happens. It is your duty as
them up based on the distance they fell away from you, and a role-player to find an exciting reason why your
write the result starting at the first trait (Brave) and alter-ego, your virtual champion, would be
continuing until you get to the end. ) simultaneously fabulous and lame. Embrace
contradiction! In play, all of your helpful scores are
If you want to have some kind of equitable and balanced going to spiral down like airplanes on fire anyway. If
point-allocation system, go ahead and get your friend's it really bothers you, choose a character class that
buy-in and make one up - but know that you'll be missing allows you to change one of the scores you don't like.
out on rolling a bucketful of dice for every character.
Hit points: Staying alive
A final word of advice here - don't share your characters
sheet with other players. Eventually they will create evil Your hit points are equal to the sum of the five
wizards, and any information you give them will be used highest helpful traits, resulting in a number between
against you. five and thirty, hopefully closer to the latter. This is
the number with which all characters start. Your total
Helpful Traits hit points do not go up if your traits increase. Hit
points will be reduced by injury from drowning or
The helpful traits are: Brave, Cool, Mysterious, Blessed, falling. They can be restored by the earnest prayers
Fast, Agile, Alert, Observant, Tough, and Strong. of a good cleric, or to a lesser extent by some good
magic. But for the most part, they will go down until
Brave reflects the character's raw courage. Use it when they hit zero - see "Getting Hurt".
bravery is called for!
Cool is that certain quality that the really cool kids possess. Alignment: Staying focused
Mysterious refers to a character's air of mystery, or aura of
mysteriousness. Just like real life, there are two alignments in The
Blessed is the degree to which the Gods favor a character. Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Game. Each
Fast indicates the character's raw speed, and also whether character you make must be good or evil. This choice
he is fast or not. will guide your decision-making in play. As a
Agile comes into play when feats of agility, dexterity, guideline for appropriate play, good characters
nimbleness and adroitness are called for. normally do good things and evil characters are more
Alert provides guidance on a character's general state of likely to do evil things. Wizards and clerics have
readiness for sudden trouble. access to amazing alignment-based spells and
Observant is all about being observant, and observing prayers.
things.
Part One: Of Men and Magic

Playing an evil character is obviously wrong and bad, but Led Zeppelin fan.
in the interest of presenting a complete role-playing
system, rules have been included for it. Modify your character's traits and add spells and
prayers according to the class you choose.
Character class: Staying classy
The birth of Gwarl
You must choose a class for each character you create. Johnette is making up her first character. She rolls a
Your class will determine many things, such as whether bunch of dice and gets this result:
you carry a sword or wear a purple robe with stars on it.
You will probably want to pick the class that is most Brave-2
beneficial to you, but there are no restrictions. Each class Cool-6
has advantages. As a group, the very best strategy is to Mysterious-4
diversify! Also, if you roll up a guy who will obviously be Blessed-1
slain right away, make your next character an evil wizard Fast-3
so you can turn him into a zombie to wring some Agile-3
usefulness out of his corpse. Alert-5
Observant-1
Warrior: Warriors fight things and know countless Tough-5
menacing poses to strike fear into the hearts of their many Strong-5
enemies. Change Brave and Strong to 6, regardless of Pathetic-3
what you rolled. This means that if you roll up a weak, Unlucky-5
cowardly character, make him a warrior. Warriors also Clumsy-1
ignore penalties from monsters of their level of lower. Oblivious-2
Thus, a level two warrior suffers no penalty from a difficult Weak-2
or easy monster.
Not bad at all. Johnette sees that Unlucky-5 and
Wizard: Wizards possess the arcane lore of ages past, and decides to make her character a dwarfling, changing
channel the eldritch energies of the cosmos to do their the harmful trait from a five to a one. She names him
bidding. They also wear crazy robes and/or capes. Gain a Gwarl Ovenwhisper.
number of spells equal to your Mysterious trait. Choose
good or evil spells based on your alignment. Play a wizard Gwarl will have 25 hit points. Johnette decides that
if your Mysterious is high. he is of good alignment, and chooses Holy Do-Over
as his single prayer. Johnette also notes that he gets
Cleric: Clerics are the stalwart faithful who travel the to re-roll any one die per falling challenge due to
paths and byways in service to their Gods, caring for the Gwarl's dwarfling nature.
dead and praying for things. Gain a number of prayers
equal to your Blessed trait. Choose a number of good or
evil prayers based on your alignment. Play a cleric if you
like tagging along and healing people, or if your Blessed is
high.

Elf: Elves, the wispy denizens of the deep forests and

secret places beyond the realm of mankind, are beautiful to
look upon and somewhat fun to play. Change any single
helpful trait to 6, regardless of what you rolled, and add
one magic spell, based on your alignment. Elves are
resistant to drowning. As an elf, you get to re-roll any one
die per drowning encounter. It can be a test you failed, or it
can be a damage die. Play an elf if you are afraid of
drowning or if you are a girl.

Dwarfling: The stout and jolly dwarflings enjoy a good

pipe and a flagon of ale at the end of the day! They are
lucky and adorable. Change any single harmful trait to 1,
regardless of what you rolled, and add one prayer, based on
your alignment. Being little, dwarflings are resistant to
falling. When playing a dwarfling, you get to re-roll any
one die per falling challenge. It can be a test you failed, or
it can be a damage die. Play a dwarfling if you are a huge
Part One: Of Men and Magic

Magic Evil Spells

Magic - is there anything more awesome or powerful or Create Zombie: An evil wizard can raise a fallen
mystical? When a character uses magic, weird rainbows comrade from the dead as a mindless zombie. Like
appear around them and the air tinkles with tiny, an apprentice, the zombie has two dice worth of hit
frightening bells. Role-play it! Wizards can cast spells at points (rolled by the wizard) and will insert itself into
any time, and they automatically succeed. Once cast, a any dangerous situation ahead of one member of the
spell is gone forever - they are like bullets of pure party, who is chosen by the former player of the dead
imagination! If you are a wizard or elf, you have the option character. A zombie must be raised immediately after
of gaining a new spell when you go up a level. An evil a character dies. Since most sensible people will have
wizard is, generally, an unreliable companion. the zombie guard their own new character, the totally
boss thing to do is to make up an evil wizard when
General Spells you die and take this spell right off the bat.

Magical Tornado of Magic: This spell, available to all Magic Rocket: This spell, available to evil wizards,
wizards, lowers the monster penalty by one each time it is is used to hurt people. If cast on a player character,
cast. It is intensely irritating. the victim takes one die of damage. It can also be
used to destroy a single treasure. Neither of these
Bulldrag's Arcane Guardians: This spell, available to all actions is helpful in any way.
wizards, provides a single re-roll during the current
challenge for two randomly-determined members of the Gregor's Hand of Malignant Dunking: This evil
party. Draw straws or roll a die to figure out who the spell causes the victim to automatically fail their next
arcane guardians guard. It can be cast multiple times drowning roll. Pure evil.
simultaneously, and arcane guardians can double up on the Alan's Hot Wind: This evil spell causes the victim to
same adventurer. automatically fail their next falling roll. Why would
you take this spell? It's just mean.
Good Spells Azagor's Icy Puppet-Strings: This evil spell allows
)
the wizard to choose which players will decide
Sailor's Charm: This good incantation protects the person another player's traits in a challenge. Two players
it is cast on from drowning. It can be cast by wizards on must be selected to choose helpful traits, and one to
themselves. The recipient automatically succeeds in their choose a harmful trait. Both the wizard himself and
next drowning roll, whenever that occurs. It is not the victim can be assigned choices if desired.
retroactive.

Wings of Love: This good eldritch spell protects the Prayers

person it is cast on from falling. It can be cast by wizards
on themselves. The recipient automatically succeeds in Praying to the gods is even more magical and
their next falling roll, whenever that occurs. It is not mystical than magic. There are gods of good and gods
retroactive. of evil, and they will hear and obey your words until
you run out of prayers. Then they will abandon you.
Summon Apprentice: The apprentice is a much-maligned If you are a cleric or dwarfling, you have the option
helper that can be summoned by any good magician. The of gaining a new prayer when you go up a level. Evil
poor apprentice has two dice worth of hit points (rolled by clerics are real good-for-nothings - most of their
the wizard) and will insert himself into any dangerous prayers are just cruel.
situation ahead of the wizard, taking damage intended for
his master until he dies. Good Prayers

Wizard's Balm: A good wizard can cure one die worth of Please Help the Drowned Person Amen: This good
hit points caused by drowning or falling to two different prayer causes the recipient to recover one die worth
characters at the same time, but only on others - not of hit points caused by drowning. It cannot be
himself. And not on an elf. Roll each healing die directed at the cleric himself.
separately.
Please Help this Person who has Fallen Amen: This
Wilkin's Helping Hand of Help: With this good spell, a good prayer causes the recipient to recover one die
wizard can choose his own harmful trait in a challenge, worth of hit points caused by falling. It cannot be
taking over that duty from the challenge creator. He also directed at the cleric himself.
chooses one of his helpful traits, as normal.
Part One: Of Men and Magic

Please Imbue this Person with Your Awesome Power Rising and falling levels make The Drowning and
Amen: This good prayer raises all of the recipients' helpful Falling Role-Playing Game different - and better -
traits by one point, even above six, until after the next than many other role-playing games. If you have
challenge. It can be directed at anybody, including the experience with those other games, it may take a little
cleric himself. getting used to. Levels are much less monolithic and
more flexible. Going negative is entirely possible and
Holy Do-Over: This prayer, available to good clerics, is the harbinger of some very rough times ahead.
allows the recipient to re-roll any single die - a challenge
roll, a healing roll, whatever. It can be cast on anybody, Gaining a level allows you to improve your character
including the cleric himself. in one of three ways:

Righteous Appropriation: This prayer allows a good Buff up: You can increase a helpful trait by one
cleric to steal a single item of treasure from a monster prior point, with no maximum. Yes, this means you could,
to defeating it, or from another player character. with some effort, have one completely boss trait that
would never fail. This sort of behavior is what evil
Righteous Destiny: This prayer allows the cleric to assign wizards were born to monkey-wrench.
both his own helpful traits in a challenge, rather than
having the player on his left provide a trait. Obviously he's Compensate: You can decrease a harmful trait by
in a better position to choose an ideal combination. one point, down to a minimum of one. This is a
sensible long-term choice and rarely gets the attention
Evil Prayers of evil wizards.

Shower Wet Hatred Upon this Swimmer So Mote It Be: Reload: If you are a wizard or elf, you can add a
This evil prayer causes an extra die of damage to the victim spell. If you are a cleric or dwarfling, you can add a
for each failed drowning roll in a single encounter. prayer. There is no upper limit to the number of spells
or prayers you can possess.
Let Them Fall As You Fell My Dark Lord: This evil
prayer causes an extra die of damage to the victim for each Remember that warriors also gain some immunity to
) monsters as they rise in levels.
failed falling roll in a single encounter.

Let the Abyss Gaze Back into Thine Enemies: This evil Losing a level requires that you lower a helpful trait
prayer raises all of the victim's negative traits by one point of your choice by one. You can't raise a harmful trait
until after the next encounter. or lose a spell or prayer - you can only begin the slow,
relentless spiral of death! One strategy is to lower
Unholy Do-Over: This prayer, available to evil clerics, your character's worst traits first, starting with those
allows the recipient to re-roll any single die. It can be rated at two. Another is to chip away at your
directed at anybody, including the cleric himself. character's best traits, keeping your average up. You
can't lower a trait already at one, although you will
Blasphemous Song of Stealing Treasure: This prayer want to. If all your character's helpful traits descend
allows an evil cleric to steal a single item of treasure from to one and by some miracle he is still alive, the next
a monster prior to defeating it, or from another player time a trait is lost, he dies.
character.
Gwarl levels up and down
Foul Destiny: This bastardly prayer allows the cleric to
assign both helpful traits in a challenge to another Gwarl Ovenwhisper, dwarfling and adventurer, has a
character, rather than having the player and the person on run of good luck. He finds himself drowning in a
his left provide traits. If the cleric has a good idea about gigantic bowl of porridge (and being eaten by a
the areas in which the victim is weak, he can do a lot of giant), but emerges only slightly injured from the
harm. difficult challenge and toting some hot new treasure.
He's level one now! Gwarl used his Holy Do-Over to
Advancement and Not-advancement succeed, so Johnette decides to reload that prayer as
her leveling-up bonus. Later on Gwarl is pulverized
Characters begin with no levels. They gain a level each by an awesome challenge and fails his first roll, and
time they succeed in a difficult or awesome challenge, and thus the entire challenge. Johnette lowers her
lose a level each time they fail any challenge - even easy character's brave from two to one and braces herself
challenges. As a tasty side benefit, killing monsters or for more trouble.
facing extra-crazy challenges can also net you treasure,
which helps you out a lot. Easy challenges are not
noteworthy in terms of loot.
Part One: Of Men and Magic

Challenges A successful roll means that third of the challenge has

been overcome. If this is enough to complete the
The Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Game is filled challenge, stop rolling. If not, pick some new traits
with challenges. Every challenge poses the risk of and roll again.
drowning or falling - you will fall, you will drown, or you
will triumph. This means that all challenges take place near A failed roll means that the character is hurt. Damage
things to fall off of or things to drown in, or perhaps both. is the difference between the target number and the
The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures section of the number rolled. The nature of the challenge may also
book offers plenty of insight into how to arrange incur additional penalties for failure. Later Gwarl
challenges. screws up an easy challenge, slipping on a patch of
wet pavement, and Johnette fails three times in a row,
Challenges always requires a series of three tests - each a nearly killing him.
die roll - to overcome them. Each challenge is rated as
either easy, difficult, or awesome. Crushing failure
An easy challenge requires one out of three rolls to be a
success for the character to avoid a penalty. Once you Losing all three challenges is a brutal and humiliating
succeed, you can stop rolling. You can miss two and still experience. And, like all brutal and humiliating
overcome the challenge on the third. experiences, you learn and grow from it. If your
character fails all three challenges in a difficult or
A difficult challenge requires two out of three rolls to be a awesome situation, you go up a level anyway. This
success for the character to avoid a penalty. If you succeed will be cold comfort when contrasted with the
in two tests, you need not roll the third. You can miss one hideous damage your character has no doubt suffered
and still overcome the challenge. to earn this boon.

An awesome challenge requires all three rolls to be a Getting hurt

success for the character to avoid a penalty. If you miss a
single roll, you fail. Luckily, these are pretty rare. As mentioned, damage is the difference between the
) target number and the number rolled, modified by
If you fail more than the allowed number of times in any circumstances based on what the character is
challenge, your character goes down a level and must drowning in or falling into. Ironically, you have a
reduce the helpful trait of your choice to one. Depending greater potential to take damage from easy
on how the challenge was constructed, there may also be challenges, since you can fail twice (taking damage
additional penalties for failing test rolls. each time) and then succeed.
Damage is removed from hit points. If hit points
Resolving challenges reach zero, your character is dead, and all your
treasure is suddenly up for grabs. Roll up a new
For each of the three linked rolls, the player will be trying character and catch up with the adventurers as soon as
to get a total under a target number on two six-sided dice. you can. They will have divided your loot among
To determine the target number, two players and the themselves by then.
challenge creator need to be involved.

First, the creator of the challenge describes the scene -

what's around, and what's happening. Based on this, the
player whose character is in danger chooses a helpful trait
to use, and describes using it to avoid falling or drowning.
Then, based on that description, the person to that player's
left (no matter who it is!) chooses a second helpful trait
that they are using to avoid death or injury. Add these two
together to get a number, generally between two and
twelve. Finally, the challenge creator chooses a harmful
trait that is interfering, and the value of this is subtracted,
giving a final total target, usually between two and eleven.
To succeed, the player must roll equal to or under this
number on two dice.

No trait can be used twice during a challenge. Once a trait

is used (helpful or harmful), it is effectively gone until the
next challenge. This means a lot of traits will be invoked,
which is fun.
Part One: Of Men and Magic

Gwarl gets hurt

Johnette's character, Gwarl Ovenwhisper, is drowning.

Clemont created the challenge and Sandy is the person on
Johnette's left.

Clemont: OK Johnette, Gwarl has slipped in a pool of

water and is drowning! It's an easy challenge.
Johnette: He's a mighty dwarfling! He's Strong! He can
swim for ages. That's 5.
Sandy: And he's Agile and can probably find a hand-hold
on the mossy lip of the pool.
Johnette: Right, and his Agile is 3, so that's a total of 8.
Clemont: Yes, but he's scared - real scared. Pathetic,
actually.
Johnette: His Pathetic is 3 - crap! I need to roll a five or
less on two dice. (She rolls an 8) Whoa! That's three
damage, and I failed the first test. Two more to go, and I
hope I make one of them!

What if a character gets strangled or burned?

Then, quite frankly, you are playing wrong. The Drowning
and Falling Role-Playing Game is about the horror and
sorrow of drowning and falling. It simply does not support
"burning" or "strangulation" any more than it supports
wizards flying airplanes. In a game that strives for focused
realism, these extraneous elements have no place. )

If this sounds strange to you, perhaps you are not ready for
The Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Game.
Part Two: Underworld and wilderness adventures

In part one you have learned how to build up and tear a harmful trait by one with each failure as well, as
down characters with speed and alacrity. Now, in part two, chosen by the room creator! You can't include more
you will learn how to craft the thrilling maelstrom into than two cards to attack traits.
which your precious alter egos will be remorselessly Any combination of cards totaling more than nine can
hurled! be used to increase the challenge from easy to
difficult, or from difficult to awesome. Note that a
Creating challenges ten card can do this all by itself. If you had a ten, you
could stack cards to move from easy to difficult, and
Give each player some playing cards randomly. For a 90 then again to awesome if you wanted.
minute to two hour game (about right), give about 32 cards
total - so eight each if you have four players. Vary from Any card can be designated a monster. Monsters
this suggestion based on the number of players and the penalize the existing challenge, based on their card
amount of time you want to spend. Give the same number value, from -1 to -3 on player rolls. This means that
of cards to each player. A speed round of two or three if your target number is eight, and there is an
cards each might be fun! Distributing an entire deck will awesome monster involved, you must roll a five or
lead to an epic and lengthy dungeon crawl. less (8 minus 3) to succeed. Monsters always leave
treasure when defeated. Monsters rarely work
Any card can represent an area in or around the dungeon together, so no more than two can appear in any one
with a challenge in it. Don't get hung up on causality - it's challenge.
perfectly fine to make a challenge take place, for example,
at the local harvest festival if you like. Just wave your While these effects can stack on top of each other,
hands and mumble when describing getting there. Getting each card only has one effect - it is either a room
the adventurers back to the dungeon will be somebody challenge, a bonus to damage or trait loss, an increase
else's problem. in challenge, or a monster.

Number cards (two through ten) are easy challenges. Only The extra-crazy challenge
one success out of three is required. If you end up using four cards in a challenge - the
Face cards (Jack, Queen, King) are difficult challenges - base card, plus three more - what you have authored
two successes out of three are required. ) will be extra-crazy. In addition to any monster-based
An Ace is an awesome challenge - three successes out of treasure, this challenge will give up one, two, or three
three are required. treasure of its own, just like a monster, just because.
Making your challenges exciting, dangerous,
and cool Writing it all down

The basic configuration is simply a bunch of cards, each Once you have your cards sorted into rooms, write the
representing an area with a general challenge. But you details of each on a separate post-it note and keep it to
can, and should, pair or stack cards to make challenges yourself until called upon to reveal your handiwork in
more interesting. Additional elements can become play. The nice thing about authoring challenges and
descriptive (it's not just lava - it's boiling lava! More keeping them around is that you can, over the course
damage when you fail!) or thematic (if you fall of the of the game, construct a virtual map of your dungeon
wagon, your pathetic is totally going up!) in nature. on the tabletop. Be sure to add little skulls when
Up to three additional cards - including monsters - can be characters are killed.
added to a room. So in an eight-card-per-player game, you
could conceivably have eight different unremarkable Clemont throws down some challenges
rooms, or two very complex and interesting ones.
Something between these two extremes is probably ideal. Clemont draws eight cards:
King of spades
What additional cards can do Queen of hearts
Seven of spades
Any black card can be added to an existing room to add an Seven of hearts
extra die of damage with each failure. Adding a second Six of spades
black card adds a second die on failures (for a total of two Four of clubs
dice of damage) and a die of damage even on successes! Four of spades
You can't include more than two cards to increase damage. Three of Clubs
First, he sets up three rooms, using the king, queen,
Any red card can be added to an existing room to lower a and a four.
helpful trait by one with each failure, as chosen by the
player. Adding a second red card forces the players to raise He pairs the seven of clubs and four of spades,
totaling eleven, and uses that to increase the challenge
Part Two: Underworld and wilderness adventures

of the king - making it an awesome challenge. He writes Awesome Drowning

down: "Awesome falling challenge. A mile-wide chasm Drowning in thick, hot liquids, like lava or hot tar.
spanned by a single fraying steel wire that is slick with cliff Drowning in sand or wheat, fine grains of any sort.
shark droppings." Any drowning can become awesome by cranking up
the madness to action movie levels - a regular old
He adds the six of clubs to the queen, making it a difficult "hot liquids" challenge becomes "a torrential rain of
challenge that inflicts an extra die of damage with each boiling goat urine."
failure. Clemont writes down: "Difficult falling challenge
plus 1 die damage per failure. Stilt-walking over broken Advanced Drowning
glass beverage containers and medical waste." You can easily arrange drowning in self pity or
drowning in debt. Add a couple of trait-shredding red
Finally, Clemont first adds the seven of hearts to the four cards to a challenge and get all personal and weepy.
of clubs room. This will be an easy challenge, but failing it This sort of challenge can be a refreshingly absurd
will cause the loss of a helpful trait. He still has the three change of pace between greased balancing beams,
of clubs, which he makes into an easy monster in this Gorgon warlords and belching pits of acid.
room. Clemont writes down: "Easy drowning challenge Drowning in greed is a great option. Characters
plus helpful trait loss on failure and easy monster. bickering over treasure may be drowning in greed,
Drowning in self pity after finding a negative review of the but you can drown in greed without treasure as well.
adventuring party in a popular dungeon newspaper at a Characters drowning in greed can be the victims of
news kiosk staffed by well-informed goblins." both red trait-damaging cards and black hit-point-
crushing cards - their lust for wealth is physically
Challenge suggestions painful.

It's good form to create challenges that include elements of Easy Falling
drowning and falling. The base challenge is always one or The most basic falls involve tripping, slipping, and
the other, but by adding additional cards, you can make a falling down. Falling off things and out of things like
challenge more colorful. Not just a fall into a pit - a fall logs and barrels are great as well.
into a pit of ice-choked grease! Not just drowning in a
raging river - drowning in a raging waterfall with jagged) Difficult Falling
stalagmites at the bottom! Dangerous surfaces, like jagged stone, fire ants, or
Remember that the base damage in all challenges is equal flaming oil can all complicate a fall. Falling in
to the difference in the roll and the target number. Thus, if complicated ways, or bouncing around, or passing
the target number is 9 and you roll an 10, you take 1 hit through trap doors, or being vaulted into the air first,
point of damage. This is the standard, and can be increased can make challenges difficult. So can falling from a
when you design challenges if you like. great height, or onto sharp things.

When creating a challenge, use the guidelines below to Awesome Falling

determine damage and challenge difficulty, but feel free to Awesome falling challenges should be, well,
interpret them in a way that is both satisfying and fun. If awesome. Falling onto poisoned spikes, into flaming
you want a raging lava river filled with angry robots but tar pits, or through industrial beef-processing
only have an easy challenge to use, make it a very small machinery would qualify. You can ramp up a simpler
and irritating lava rivulet filled with verbally abusive challenge with colorful language. "Slipping on a wet
robots and don't worry about adding a bunch of penalty staircase" is one thing, but "slipping on a wet
damage cards. These lists are not canonical, so be creative staircase without a handrail" is something else
and go nuts. entirely.

Easy Drowning Advanced Falling

Drowning in still water - a well, pond, or sewer. Perhaps Falling in love, falling out of love, or falling for a
an Olympic swimming pool, or garden water feature, or the trick all cry out for some red cards in the challenge to
endless tears of a reluctant virgin? tear down the helpful traits and build up the harmful
ones. Falling out of love is a popular precursor to
Difficult Drowning drowning in self pity.
Drowning in thick liquids. Blood, oatmeal, or mud would
be good. Drowning in your own fluids would also fall Characters bickering over treasure may have a falling
under this classification. out, but you can have a falling out without treasure as
Drowning in raging or turbulent water, like a gigantic well. Characters having a falling out might gain or
underground stream. Drowning in hot liquids, like a vat of lose traits, but they might just beat the crap out of
tea. each other, too. Or both.
Part Two: Underworld and wilderness adventures

Getting drunk and staying drunk The Monster Cyclopedia

Drowning your sorrows and falling off the wagon: Getting You are free to make up monsters to throw at the
drunk is itself a potentially serious challenge in Drowning adventurers. There are countless manuals stuffed
and Falling. Any easy challenge can be declared alcohol- with monsters that were designed for other games.
based as a special case, and no damage is accrued through Clever players of The Drowning and Falling Role-
failure. Success means the character is drunk for the next Playing Game can easily repurpose these and make
challenge, with appropriate penalties and benefits. them even better.
Note that not all monsters are, technically, monsters.
Being drunk makes survival harder when you are Despite this unassailable fact, they are still monsters.
drowning. Increase the challenge from easy to difficult, or
from difficult to awesome. If a awesome challenge is Easy Monsters
encountered, a drunk character automatically dies!
These monsters are -1 to player tests.
However, being drunk makes survival easier when you are Jenny Green-Teeth is a hideous river-bank witch!
falling. Decrease the challenge from difficult to easy, or The Maiden is a pretty girl who yearns for love!
from awesome to difficult. If an easy test is encountered, a Skeletons are dead men made of living bones!
rubber-boned drunk automatically succeeds. When the nuts and berries run out, blood squirrels
turn to flesh!
Monsters and treasure A friendly cat is always purring underfoot, threading
figure eights around your ankles...until you fall!
The world of Drowning and Falling is a mist-choked Your big brother (or big sister) is an age-old nemesis
fantasyland of dark moors and verdant forests, craggy that will trip you and then point and laugh, calling
crags and crumbling castles. There is magic, and there are you a weakling. This tends to be bad for the helpful
monsters - monsters that can make you fall! Or drown! But traits. Often entire rival adventuring parties
for the hearty souls who seek adventure, there is also comprised of older brothers and sisters are
treasure! encountered.
A blob is a pudding-like amorphous beast of terror.
)
Fighting monsters
Monsters, like drowning and falling challenges, are rated Difficult Monsters
as easy, difficult, or awesome. They always accompany
drowning or falling challenges and cannot be encountered These monsters are -2 to player tests.
alone, because that wouldn't make any sense. Beware of cave monsters - hodags, imps, and goblins
Easy monsters inflict a -1 penalty to character's chances of that like to hang around deep pits!
success during the challenge. Giant clams are mollusks with malice on their minds!
They travel in packs.
Difficult monsters inflict a -2 penalty to character's chances The dreaded gorgons lurk on cliff ledges! They will
of success during the challenge. use your head to grind their corn!
Tripping knights are sworn to make passer-by fall!
Awesome monsters inflict a -3 penalty to character's Elves and scorpions travel together to sow chaos!
chances of success during the challenge. That's serious The Princess is a not-so-pretty girl who demands
business! love!
Beware what lurks below the surface when venus fly
A monster fighting example kelp are about.
Sirens lure adventurers to their doom - flashing lights
Johnette's character Gwarl is crossing a raging stream and blaring noises can distract you - beware! Where
guarded by a pirate skeleton! This is a drowning challenge was that pit again?
(in this case, difficult), and for her first test, Johnette, her Cliff Sharks are relentless, carnivorous fish that lurk
left-hand neighbor, and the challenge creator work out her in nests above narrow cliff ledges, waiting for
target number - an 8. The skeleton, being an easy monster, doughty adventurers to slip to their doom! Even their
inflicts a -1 penalty, so Johnette must roll a 7 or less to droppings can cause a deadly fall - or drowning!
succeed. Gwarl emits a foul dwarfling battle-wind and Cliff Sharks is also a seller of quality used
plunges into deadly combat! automobiles with financing plans for any adventurer's
budget.
Part Two: Underworld and wilderness adventures

Awesome Monsters Every character may attempt to steal one item

between each scene, so even if you get ganged up on,
These monsters are -3 to player tests. you have a chance at recovering some of your
Metagorgons are gorgons composed of living gorgons! property.
Dragons are giant fire-breathing lizards of legend. If you Stealing treasure becomes an additional challenge for
are unfamiliar with dragons, you are not allowed to play the potential victim, who will be furiously beating off
this game. Seriously, just put it down. his light-fingered fellow adventurers. If one person
The kraken is a many-armed monster of the briny deep wants to steal from you, it is an easy challenge. If
seeks to drown anyone who hunts for it's treasure! two person want to steal from you, it is a difficult
Lava monsters are terrible creatures of yore that live in challenge. Three or more - awesome. If you win,
low-viscosity flows of molten rock, such as pillow lava! you keep your treasure. If you lose the challenge you
You'll run anywhere just to get away from the hideous must fork over one treasure for each thief. They
visage of Medusa, boss of the gorgons - even into a pit of choose from among your hoard in descending order
boiling oil! of cool.
Like the kraken but unlike the maiden and the princess, the
queen is a many-armed monster of the briny deep who Note that damage and lost levels from treasure-
seeks to either drown anyone who hunts for her treasure - stealing attempts are par for the course.
or make them her king!
Exploring
Getting treasure
The player with the most gaming materials within
Everybody loves treasure! arm's reach goes first. This player states a direction
If a challenge with a monster attached is overcome, the that the party will explore - straight ahead, left, or
group gets treasure. The amount of treasure is equal to the right.
die penalty of the monster, so an easy monster (-1) gives up
one treasure and a awesome monster (-3) gives up three, If they choose left or right, the player to their left or
total. These must be divided among the player characters in right announces which of the challenges they have
any way that seems equitable. Work it out among crafted the party has encountered. If straight ahead,
) the person most directly opposite them does likewise.
yourselves. Clerics may wish to steal treasure at some
point. Lay down the post-it note adjacent to the last one
played, creating a map of the adventure as you
When you get treasure, immediately state what it is - a pair progress. This process may fray at the edges if people
of magical pants, an ancient sword, a vest of bones, a pile insist on going in circles.
of gold, or whatever you like. Write it down on a post-it
and keep it handy. Somebody will probably want to steal it Picking challenges and running out of
at some point. If another character dies, the survivors may options
divide up the dead guy's now-abandoned treasure in any
way they see fit. You must play easy challenges, or challenges with
easy elements, if you have them. If you have no easy
Treasure is awesome. A treasure can be used to re-roll a challenges, you must play difficult challenges. This
single die in every challenge. If you have three treasure, creates a de-facto escalation during the game, and
you get three re-rolls. Describe how your treasure is ensures that all the characters will be killed by a
helping you overcome the challenge! To be clear, a treasure dragon, kraken, or other enormous monster at the end
can be used once in every challenge, and if you have more of the game, rather than the beginning.
than one treasure, you can take advantage of multiple re-
rolls during each challenge! As players use up their challenges, certain options
become impossible - you can't go left if the player to
One of the appendices is a treasure generator, in case you your left has no more challenges. You can't go that
need inspiration. Hooray for treasure! way - pick another direction, until you face your final
doom - the most rough and tough monster in the
Stealing treasure gorgon pits. If, for some reason, a character survives
the final challenge, an exit to the surface inevitably
Sometimes adventurers will not agree on an equitable beckons.
division of treasure. They may wish to steal it from their
peers between scenes, which is encouraged. This is what
you get for drowning in greed or having a falling out with
the rest of the party. The whole thing is tremendously
counterproductive but, in the interest of maintaining
realism, rules have been provided.
Part Two: Underworld and wilderness adventures

A final word about winners and losers

Role-playing games are all about imagination, and

camaraderie, and telling stories together. It isn't about
competing, it is about collaborating.
When the dungeon and its monstrous denizens and savage
dangers have finally been bested, take stock - who ground
up the least number of characters? Who emerged with the
most treasure? These players win.

Who lost the most characters? Who emerged with the least
treasure, or tried to slip some immolation in? These
players lose. Whoever the majority feels did the worst job
is responsible for providing snacks - good snacks - the next
time The Drowning and Falling Role-Playing Game is
played.

)
Appendices and notes

Appendix A: Sample campaign settings Appendix B: A torpid emo ballad

Gorgon hunters of Gorgon Island For drowning in angst, what can be more appropriate
than unleashing a torpid emo ballad? Anyone who
"Can you see? Can you hear? sings this song immediately gains their character a
Can you feel your fate will be to fall?" level if they can complete it without interruption.
- GORGON, Back Street Killer Ukulele accompaniment and/or lethargic dancing
earns an extra level.
The Gorgon hunters on Gorgon Island are cold-hearted
killers - they have to be. They are the brave men and
women who go down the gorgon pits to slay gorgons.
"drowning And falling"
By ancient committee
Why hunt gorgons? Because they are a blight, an evil
canker upon the green and fecund land above. Are you your language cuts like violence
brave - and foolish - enough to enter the gorgon's lair and your violence cuts like razor blades
give them the whipping they deserve? It is a ren-faire-like your razor blades will shave my dignity
land of peace and good will, with jolly kings and smiling my dignity is your language aid
peasants, marred only by the stinking gorgon pits that dot the language of sorrow
the landscape within easy reach of every village. Beneath (chorus)
the very feet of the good people of Gorgon island are falling (into the sea)
gorgons and their hated minions - cliff sharks, skeletons, drowning (into the sea)
and the mighty kraken itself! the sea is drowning (into the sea)
What path will you choose? The path of war leads like an the sea is falling (into me)
elf-arrow straight into the heart of the gorgon pits, but the you climb my back like cliffs and daggers
path of adventure will take you on a rollicking roller hearts, like sharks, they jump away
coaster of thrills that ends in the dreaded pits of the you broke my platter with loving patter
gorgons themselves! but you stole my heart today
but tomorrow
This campaign setting should be heavy on the gorgons. It) is sorrow
should also include a lot of falling and drowning. (chorus)
(chorus x 4)
The Edge (acoustic breakdown of chorus)
By Joshua BishopRoby (chorus)

"We're living on the edge!" --Dev Perkayastha, from "Ancient Committee is an

- Aerosmith, Living On the Edge Emo Band", his excellent Game Chef 2006 entry.
Check out the game here:
The world is flat and the old sailors live upon its ragged http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Ancient_Committee_is_a
Edge. n_Emo_Band.php
Oceans of water are constantly pouring off over the side,
creating waterfalls and torrents and collecting in swift
rivers and even some ponds and lakes where the crags jut
out far enough to trap the water. Of course the edge is
tectonically active, and gouts of lava pour out of lava tubes
and suchlike. There are deep, water-filled craters, caused
by the magic rockets of angry wizard and undead meteors.
Also there are scary castles with moats and ramparts.

The Edge was originally populated by crews of sailing

ships that went over the edge of the world and managed to
crash on the steep slopes below. Since that time, however,
the sailors managed to find themselves some women and
have prospered and multiplied. They farm terraced gardens
and loot the remains of underground dungeons that get
brought to the edge of the world through tectonic action.
Of course, their lives are in constant danger -- constant
danger of drowning, and of falling.
Appendices and notes

Appendix C: Treasure generator Designer's notes

If you ever get stuck for a cool treasure, fall back on this Thank you for reading Drowning and Falling. I hope
set of tables. Each magical treasure is composed of two you play it, enjoy it, share and expand it, and give
parts. Roll two dice to determine the first sub-table and ORBIS some money, too.
component, and repeat for the second sub-table and Drowning and Falling sprang to life from a comment
component. For example, if you rolled 2,6 for the first made by Andy Kitkowski, who mentioned using
part, that would be sub-table one (Fancy Stuff), and the "rules for falling and drowning" as a game design
sixth entry - a necklace. For the second part, if you rolled benchmark. In his own words:
4,3, you'd then have a totally boss Necklace of Blessed
Wonder. "...'falling and drowning' is my summary for the
gamut of World Dooms: falling, drowning, poisoning,
First roll electrocution ... And further from there, things like
(1-2) Fancy Stuff "bullet tumbling effects", "blunt weapons with
1. Ring piercing nubs on them", "shock due to internal
2. Rod trauma", etc.
3. Staff
4. Wand Some people don't consider a game a game unless it
5. Orb has specifically defined how these things should
6. Necklace work. I think it's a combination of "All Games Have
(3-4) Fashion Stuff this Stuff" and "All Games Should Model Reality at
1. Boots least a Little".
2. Girdle
3. Cloak I think the litmus test for this is hearing about
4. Pants initiative in the game FVLMINATA: Slaves and
5. Vest Workers and Soldiers defer to Patricians in rank and
6. Gauntlets all social and economic status, therefore Patricians
(5-6) War Stuff always "have initiative".
)
1. Helm
2. Shield Some People: Ooh, that's interesting!
3. Armor
4. Sword Some People: Ooh, that's fucking retarded!
5. Axe
6. Spear People in the second group tend to put a high mark on
Second roll having the game rules model 'reality'.
(1-2) Magic Stuff
1. Flying awesomely through the air In the end, it's not bad design unless you include
2. Ghostliness those rules in a game that has nothing to do with
3. Fish breath drowning or falling, or if you don't include those rules
4. The flaming eagle king in a game that clearly has lots of those sorts of
5. Lightning bullets events."
6. Kraken-Strength
(3-4) Holy Stuff I willfully misread this and took it as a design
1. Saint Carl's holy bones challenge, setting out to craft a game that was focused
2. Sacred frass on nothing but drowning and falling with the tenacity
3. Blessed wonder of a pit bull. Others - lots of others - saw the fun in
4. Holy laser spikes this and enthusiastically chipped in. To my utter
5. Evil amazement, half a dozen fantastic indie comic artists
6. Immaculate rainbow power agreed to illustrate the game. The pressure increased
(5-6) Old Stuff a hundredfold as I tried to make the actual design
1. Elvish delight worthy of their art. What emerged is an affectionate
2. The dwarfling matriarchs love letter to the first RPG I ever played, which came
3. Unholy destruction in a white box and changed my life for the better.
4. The gorgon emperor
5. Ancient mystery
6. The haunted meteor
 CHARACTERS RECORD SHEET

GUY # ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE

NAME

CLASS
LEVEL
ALIGNMENT

HIT POINTS

THE HELPFUL TRAITS

BRAVE
COOL
MYSTERIOUS
BLESSED
FAST
AGILE
ALERT
SMART
TOUGH
STRONG

THE HARMFUL TRAITS

PATHETIC
UNLUCKY
CLUMSY
OBLIVIOUS
WEAK

TREASURE

SPELLS/
PRAYERS

THIS WORK IS LICENSED TO

THE PUBLIC UNDER A CREATIVE
COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-
NONCOMMERCIAL-SHAREALIKE
LICENSE.