Here’s a quick idea for a heroic dungeon crawling game. It’s not intended to be innovative — just to play with this:

The Main Idea: We all know that in a balanced level-based RPG, advancement is kind of illusory. So why not ditch it?

Step 0: Get Dice and Writing Stuff

We use d10s in this game.

Step 1: Make a Character

Okay, we’ll use Might, Agility, Magic, Perception and Toughness as traits. Split 13 points between them – minimum 1, maximum 5. Multiply your Toughness by 10 after setting that 1-5 number to get your Hit Points.

If you have the highest Trait in the party you get a special ability — if you have multiple choices, you may only pick one. They are:

• Might: You’re badass. You inflict double damage!
• Agility: You’re quick. You get two actions per round!
• Magic: You’re a sorcerer. You get three more spell points (see below)!
• Perception: You’re an expert. You can perform one type of task as if it always requires just one success!
• Toughness: You’re tough as nails. You get 150% of the hit points of a typical character.

Step 2: Equip Your Character

Split 6 points between equipment – minimum 1, maximum 3. Equipment mostly adds dice to character traits for certain rolls. Give each type of gear a specific name – it doesn’t boost all trait rolls, just the ones it applies to.

• Might: These are weapons.
• Agility: This is dungeoneering gear – poles, rope and so on.
• Magic: These are magical tools — wands, orbs and the like.
• Perception: These are professional trappings. Pick a name for the profession.
• Toughness: This is armor. You actually roll its  dice and subtract the result from damage.

Step 3: Get Spells

If you have at least Magic 3 you can pick spells — one point of spells per point of Magic. You can divide points between spells however you like. A spell acts like a piece of equipment, though it might be a strange demon, a bolt of flame, etc.

Step 4: Pick Attitudes

Split 3 dice between attitudes – as many or few as you like. Give each one a name. It’s a habit or other personality trait. Attitudes can help you by adding dice or screw you by taking them away.

Step 5: Kick Ass

Okay, you’re ready to go.

Rolling Dice

7 or higher is a success. 10 is two successes. More successes wins. Breaking it out:

• To attack, roll Might + weapon. Multiply the highest number you rolled by your successes to determine damage.
• To defend, roll Agility, no equipment bonuses (usually). You defend if you beat the attack roll.
• To perform athletic feats, roll Agility + dungeoneering equipment
• To cast a spell, roll Magic + spell – but every 1 or 10 on the die drains a Hit Point.
• To notice or know things, roll Perception + professional trappings
• To resist a disease, poison or other insidious physical threat, roll Toughness (no equipment bonus)
• To soak a blow, roll armor, but just add the dice together and subtract it from damage.

Use opposed rolls or a difficulty of 1 success (easy) 2 (typical) 4 (risky) or 6 (really hard).

Threats and Challenges

Your character never advances (though she can change) except to get a level 1 to 10. Whenever you gain a level you can rebuild your character from the ground up. Same person, new emphasis.

Challenges get more difficult looking on a 1-10 scale. Let’s use monsters to demonstrate:

1. Goblin
2. Orc
3. Ogre
4. Minor Demon
5. Young Dragon
6. Major Demon
7. Elder Dragon
8. Lich
9. Demigod
10. God

None of these creatures has many more traits than any other. Instead, your relative level determines how tough they are:

• If you’re the same level as the challenge it’s standard.Each creature represents an individual.
• If you’re one level higher the challenge represents a pack. Each creature (a single stat block) represents 3-5 individuals.
• If you’re two levels higher the challenge represents a gang. Each creature block represents 6-10 individuals.
• If you’re three levels higher the challenge is a horde of 20-50
• If you’re four levels higher the challenge is an army of at 100-200
• If you’re a lower level than the challenge, just add to monster traits; + 2 per rank higher is reasonable. Even lesser heroes can kick divine ass every once and a while.

Stat monsters out as characters, but you can give strange ones one or more special abilities. Basically, the same stat block that represents one goblin for a level 1 character is a unit 100 goblins for a 5th level character. Kickass.

Noncombat challenges similarly range from the standard to epic based on relative level, but you can ignore this if you like – ice is always just as slippery, for instance.