Snarkhunt

Snarkhunt is a little micro-TTRPG I wrote a few years ago. All the rules fit on the front and back of a piece of paper. You can see them here.

The theme and flavors were taken from the Lewis Carroll poem The Hunting of the Snark. The little toothy smiley face guy is a daemon named Snell :)

What kind of a TTRPG is it?

I would call it a dice-based micro "campfire fantasy" OSR (Old School Revival) TTRPG. Micro because the rules fit on 2 pages.

The rules are very good for when you have a map of a dungeon or a wild place and you want the players to dive in as quirky characters. If you see just being worn down by travel and having to look at whats in your packs to make a decision as a fun part of the experience, it should be pretty good for that.

Important note: this is a 'win-or-lose' game. I love a TTRPG which is more like a LARP or acting situation, where it's all about narrative. This is not that. This is a game where the players should die and the game should literally end if they make a series of bad decisions. That tension—the capacity to actually lose, no redo—is core to making it interesting, and core to the design of these rules.

The players will get worn down by miseries unless they can keep themselves afloat with little comforts provided by their character skills, or items like tea, music instruments and small charms they carry.

The combat is kinda freeform through the threat system, the players are rewarded for being more creative than just attacking. So if you run this, put your players in combat situations where the goal isn't accomplished just by killing the enemy.

Finally there's a system called roll the bones that's really good at handing long-term issues. If a player catches an illness, or has a physical injury, or is under a curse, or is trying to escape a pursuer over many hours, this is a simple system to give that in-game tension.

Has it been playtested?

Yes but not extensively. I've run probably 3 or 4 sessions with this game total. However, one player still wanted to play more of it over a year after that :)

Facets?

It's not quite true that that was all the rules. There was a really long formatted PDF of "facet" options. It's too rough to put up, but if you want to run this game, you can just make up facets for your characters. Here examples of the three main types. Use them as inspiration to come up with something similar.o

Background: Wilder

You live in the wild. The behavior of serfs and burghers puzzles you. The rhythms of the world are second nature to you.

Your you know how to forage for a handful of wild ingredients. You can take 4 hours and find one of the following, or a plant you make-up, subject to GM approval:

• Persimmon leaf. It's tea staves off the cold for the whole party for 12 hours (1 slot).

• Mooncarrot. It's juice makes an ink visible only under a full moon (1 slot).

• 4 Waxvines. A parasitic vine whose waxy stipules can be burnt for 1 hours of low light (1/4 slot).

Foraging for useful amounts of food is not usually viable. Taking this facet again lets you identify more plants.

Talent: They are called... The Wall

The buck stops here. You are the immovable object.

You are intimidating. You can assume... The Stance. While stanced, nothing can pass you in a 5 ft radius, it is very difficult to move you against your will, and you have +2 defense. Decribe the means by which you stop passage. You cannot break stance until you have been in the stance for 2 rounds.

Quirk: A strong grip shows confidence

You know a special little physician's trick which can completely disable someone, but you can only do it after they willingly shake hands with you. It's something to do with those stupid little bones in their wrist, you know, the small ones, the little crinkly-scrungly popcorn ones. Ugh, I'm so icked out just by thinking about them.

Whenever someone shakes hands with you, you can use the technique on them for a major amount (1d8) of focus. They fall dead immediately. But sometimes, just before you're about to shake hands, you make a little grin that makes people very hesistant to grasp your hand. (Roll 1d4. On a 1, you grin.)

Monsters?

The numbers for this game are not compatible with the numbers in 'standard' OSR documents. They usually a little smaller, but sometimes you can get away swapping 'damage' for 'threat' if you're ok to give players a challenge. I have a conversion table that I might get to publishing in the future.