TEXT: Once We Were Heroes
  The Summer Children
  A Role Playing Game made for the
  2015 RPG Geek 24-Hour RPG Contest 
  by Jack van Riel
  
  The Elevator Pitch
  Once We Were Heroes: The Summer Children is an RPG for a GM and up to 5 players. It's set 
  in a world of faeries and boglins, and borrows heavily from European folklore, Celtic fairy tales 
  in particular.
  The players have memories of a previous life, when they were brave heroes who stopped a war 
  between man and faerie, and then vanished. Now that there are signs of a new invasion, they 
  are called upon to be heroes in this life. During their travels to the Otherworld, the realm of the
  fae, they will remember more and more of their previous heroic life, and grow more powerful. 
  Or they might die.
  Death is not the end, however. In the Otherworld, the players' spirits have no problem finding 
  a new body, similar to the old one. But dying is not without a cost. The more the players 
  reincarnate, the more they lose their humanity and the more fae-like they become. When they 
  reach the faerie court, will they remember enough of their human past to save their kin?
  Once We Were Heroes: The Summer Children gives an outline for a story, but you'll never play
  the same game twice. It uses only a few d6, and you won't ever have to sum dice or modifiers; 
  you can see the result of a die roll at a glance. Shared narrative control is built into the game. 
  Combat is fast, simple and deadly. Players have the tools and abilities to overcome challenges in
  many different ways (without fear of failure or death) and the GM doesn't have to pull punches.
  2
  
  The Story
  In the olden days, people in the Westlands spoke of the Happy Folk as friends. Boglins would 
  wander into the towns like lost children, looking for a story or something to eat. Faeries would 
  show visions of the land beyond the hills, or enthrall the townsfolk with music. Over the years 
  the fae visits became less frequent, until they stopped altogether, and eventually people forgot 
  about them.
  200 years ago Hallowe'en coincided with a blood moon. In what came to be known as the Blood
  Night, war bands of faeries and boglins streamed down from the hills, ravaged the Westlands 
  and massacred hundreds of farmers and townsfolk. Afterward, the fae folk hid in trees and 
  ponds, glades and marshes. Boglins would go on kidnapping sprees, and the faeries would lure 
  the weak of mind to their deaths. Babies were stolen from their cribs, children off the streets, 
  and grown men and women would walk away into the night and vanish. A band of heroes was 
  formed, to visit the land beyond the hills and confront the faerie court. They never returned, 
  but the attacks stopped. Songs were written about the sacrifice of Elwuanna, Servas the Poet, 
  Ysulde Halfelf, Malcail Wose, and Old Finneban. The fae folk retreated to the hills and were 
  never seen again.
  20 years ago, on midsummer night, five children were born in different villages in the 
  Westlands. They didn't cry but whispered in a forgotten tongue, and as they grew they sang 
  songs that hadn't been heard in the Westlands in centuries. The druids remembered the faeries, 
  how they would steal children and swap them with changelings. But they also remembered the 
  heroes. And as the children grew, signs of the bravery of old manifested in the five, who were 
  called the Summer Children.
  Today, preparations are made for the Hallowe'en festivities. Several druids have warned the 
  elders of a coming eclipse. Their anxiety is felt by all. Children are kept inside, as adults whisper
  of the Blood Night. Strange winds are blowing over the lakes, as unnatural sounds are heard in 
  the forests. Farm animals have been found dead with no signs of wounds or illness, and no light 
  falls in the sacred grove.
  The elders of the five large towns have spoken. The Summer Children must be sent to cross the 
  hills into the realm of the fae. They are to find the court and stop the attacks, just as the heroes 
  of old have done, and they have to do it before the eclipse.
  Now you are standing at the entrance of a cave, where the boglin king lives. Nobody has been 
  this far into the hills in 200 years, and you must push on. Through the caves, through the hills 
  to the land of the fae, and find the court. Only you can save the Westlands.
  3
  
  The Adventure
  There's no easy way to get to the faerie court. The journey is split into five acts:
  - The Boglin Caves, where you'll be lost without a guide
  - The Valley of Plenty, where temptations are deadly and anything could be a shapeshifter
  - The Desolate Cliffs, where Murrachob the Giantess rules and the very earth attacks intruders
  - The Misty Forest, where the animals and trees are possessed by spirits
  - The Twilight, where the faeries have their homes
  Before the game starts, GM and players will have to decide if they want to play all five acts, and 
  how much time to spend in each. What you might want to do, is focus on one thing in each act.
  For instance, pick from the maze of tunnels, the hordes of boglins or the king and his followers 
  in the first act. Figure out what you want the challenge to be. Is it convincing the king to let 
  you pass, navigating the darkness and natural traps in the tunnels, or getting past curious or 
  aggressive boglins? Another option is to spend a session on one act, so you have a full story in 
  five sessions.
  During the adventure, the players will encounter strange places and even stranger creatures. 
  How those creatures act and what they look like is left purposely vague. The GM and players 
  are encouraged to discuss how they imagine these beings, and it might be different from one 
  game to the next. Remember that in the Otherworld nothing is too strange.
  Draw a boglin
  Draw a faerie
  ??
  4
  
  Actions
  All characters have 6 attributes. They are:
  Combat, for hurting others
  Physical, for athletic or acrobatic stunts
  Wilderness, for survival skills in (super)natural environments
  Trickery, for sneaking and deception
  Social, for making friends and getting help
  The 6th attribute is unique to each player character.
  To perform any action, you simply describe what you do and then that's what happens. You are 
  a (reincarnated) hero, so success is assumed. However, whenever you attempt to do something 
  that carries risk, you have to roll the dice. 
  You roll a number of d6 equal to you relevant attribute. What you're looking for are 6's and 
  doubles.
  Double 6
  You masterfully pull it off, with an extra flourish. Narrate your 
  awesomeness. You gain something too: a confidence boost, admiration, 
  power, help, a small item, momentum, whatever makes sense in the 
  situation. We call that a tag(+). You can choose the tag, but as always the 
  GM has veto powers. Write it down.
  Doubles
  It happens as you describe; you're not in danger.
  No doubles, one 6.
  Something went wrong. That doesn't mean you screwed up, it could 
  simply be bad luck, but it didn't go as planned. Narrate your mishap. You 
  succeed at your attempt, but you lose something: focus, a chance, an item, 
  willpower. Or maybe you're injured, grabbed, lost, or something else. 
  Your choice, but it should be something that hinders you. The GM is the 
  final judge. That's a tag(-), which you write down. Alternatively, you can 
  choose that at the last minute you decided the action was too risky, and 
  that you didn't do it.
  No doubles, no 6's. Something went horribly wrong. The GM will narrate what happened, 
  and has free choice. As always you succeed, but the price is high: possibly 
  your life. It depends on how dangerous the attempt was and what makes 
  sense in the situation. It doesn't have to be an injury, it could also mean 
  you've woken up a trollwife, for instance. Unless it actually ended, your 
  life has become more complicated. You gain a tag(-); write it down.
  5
  
  Example: You're chasing a spriggan that stole your sword. It has grown to giant size and can 
  easily step off a cliff, but for you it's a series of risky jumps down the slope. Physical or 
  Wilderness would make sense here, and you choose Wilderness (since it's higher, a 4) to find a 
  path where you can descend in relative safety. You roll 4d6. 
  You roll 6,6,6,3:
  That's double 6 (triple, even: feel free to go gonzo with your description). 
  You narrate how you find a rocky overhang from where you jump down 
  on the spriggan's neck! You write down as a new tag(+): on its neck.
  You roll 6,2,2,1:
  Doubles (and a 6, but that's not relevant here). You narrate how you 
  skillfully descend, barely slowing down.
  You roll 6,5,4,2:
  No doubles, but you do have a 6. You narrate how you tumble down the 
  slope, and painfully land in a cloud of dust. As you scramble to your feet, 
  you momentarily panic as you can't see the spriggan anywhere. When you
  do glimpse it again, you've lost a lot of distance. That's the tag(-) you write
  down.  
  Alternatively: You decide that going down the slope is too risky, and you 
  will have to find another way to get your sword back. Maybe you can trick
  the spriggan.
  You roll: 5,4,3,1:
  No doubles, and no 6's either. The GM narrates how your hasty descend 
  triggers a rock slide, and now you're helplessly pinned under a large rock 
  as the spriggan turns around and looks at you cruelly. You write down 
  that you're pinned(-). This could end badly.
  Often, it will be self-evident how a tag helps or hinders you. It could give you options you 
  would otherwise not have had, or it might take options away. The GM could also reason that a 
  task that would otherwise be considered a success without risk, now requires a roll.
  If it isn't clear in the narrative what the tag does, it affects a future roll. If you have a tag(+), you
  can use it to reroll one die. If you have a tag(-), the GM can force you to reroll one die. A tag 
  can only be used once in this way. Note that usually the narrative consequences are 
  bonuses/penalties enough; only use rerolls if there would be no effect otherwise, and never 
  reroll more than once for any given tag, even if they are persistent in the narrative.
  Tags go away when it makes narrative sense. You keep the 'lost my sword' tag until you get it 
  back (or a new weapon).
  6
  
  Combat
  Combat is always risky, and therefore requires die rolls. Actions in combat can usually be 
  qualified either as a setup, or as an attack. An attack uses the Combat attribute, and it deals 1 
  damage regardless of the result of the roll. Setups can be made with any attribute, including 
  Combat. Things like feints, shoves and taunts are all setups. A setup roll is made with one die 
  less than the attribute (with a minimum of 2), unless it makes use of something specific to the 
  combat situation, in which case it is at full value. Taunting a boggart by insulting its looks is at 
  -1, throwing the severed ear of its brother whom you've previously killed at its feet is at full 
  value. Surrounding a puca is at -1, using the mysterious thick fog to get behind it unseen is at 
  full value. A setup adds 1 extra damage to the next combat roll made against the targeted 
  creature, regardless of the result of the setup roll. Multiple setups can boost one attack.
  As with any roll, double sixes with a setup or attack gives a tag(+). Narratively, it can make 
  more intuitive sense if it affects the opponent rather than the attacker. For gameplay it doesn't 
  matter if you write down "It is disarmed" or "I have disarmed it". Similarly, a tag(-) usually 
  represents the opponent striking back at the character.
  Tags(-) in combat escalate. If you get a tag(-) in combat when you already have one or more 
  tags(-), this should be on the level of a serious wound, being mind-controlled, definitively 
  shattering your magical protections, or similar. Mark it tag(--). The next tag(-) kills you.
  The faeriefolk, monsters, giants and other creatures are harder to kill than mere humans, and 
  wounding them doesn't make them any less dangerous. Instead of tags, they have a wound 
  value. When they take total damage equal to or above their wound value, they die, although 
  many can transform or have other ways of escape. Extra damage over their wound value has no 
  effect. Players might not always know the exact wound value of a creature, but the GM should 
  give an indication how wounded it is.
  At the start of combat, the GM picks one player to act first. They can make one attack or setup, 
  and any other supplementary actions (that may or may not require die rolls). The GM can put a 
  limit on how much a player can do on their turn. After their actions, the player picks the next 
  player to go, from among the players who haven't yet acted. And so on. After each player has 
  had their turn, the GM describes what the opponents do. They automatically tag(-) one or more
  characters. More dangerous monsters might put a tag(--) on a character even if it didn't have 
  any tags(-) yet, or strike a killing blow. Their actions aren't necessarily in the form of a strike 
  with a claw or weapon. They could also topple trees, call for reinforcements, shapeshift, 
  frighten a character, turn a character into a rock and so on. Afterward, the GM picks the next 
  player to start the new round.
  7
  
  Characters, Death and Advancement
  A player character in Once We Were Heroes: The Summer Children is made up of two parts: 
  the current life (as a Summer Child) and the previous life (as a Hero). At the end of this 
  document you find sheets with all required information. When you start the game, choose a 
  Summer Child and a Hero to play. You can also randomize one or both among the players.
  The adventure is split into five acts: The Boglin Caves, The Valley of Plenty, The Desolate 
  Cliffs, The Misty Forest, and The Twilight. After each act, you become more powerful.  If you 
  completed the act without dying, you gain memories from you heroic past and abilities you 
  used to possess. Choose an advancement from the list that belongs to your Hero. If you died, 
  you gain a fae advancement. Choose one of two advancements that belong to the act where you 
  died. If you died multiple times in one act, you still only gain one advancement.
  Whenever you die in the Otherworld, your spirit lives on and your body reforms at the end of 
  the scene. Describe how it happens. A flash of light, and your body is gone? And you appear in 
  the next room? Or do your wounds knit together and you are whole again, with a change in 
  your face that's hard to describe? 
  When you reincarnate, you lose all tags such as wounds, but you keep friends you've made, 
  items you've found, et cetera. You also have to cross out a heroic past advance that you haven't 
  yet taken. You won't ever be able to take it; such is the price of death. Die again, and lose 
  another. If you ever run out of heroic advances, you no longer advance at the end of an act, not 
  even if you died.
  8
  
  List of heroic advancements (and starting powers)
  Choose one after any act in which you didn't die. Cross one you didn't take yet out when you 
  die. You can use the abilities at will, unless it's noted that they can only be used once per act.
  Elwuanna
  Starting power: You can make light where there is darkness, or create faint sounds or smells
   
  Advances
  •
  1/act You can speak telepathically when one person you can see
  •
  1/act You step through space and time and instantly move up to 10 meters straight ahead
  •
  1/act You can levitate and move up to 10 meters vertically
  •
  1/act You can create a simple illusion
  •
  You can see perfectly through darkness, mist or illusions
  Servas the Poet
  Starting power: You deal 1 extra damage when you roll double 6 with an attack
  Advances
  •
  1/act You can tell a convincing lie, although you can't force someone into danger
  •
  1/act You can make someone tell you the truth
  •
  1/act You challenge someone to one-to-one combat and they accept
  •
  1/act After you make an attack, the creature flees in pain and terror
  •
  1/act You can make anyone stop what they're doing and listen to you
  Ysulde Halfelf
  Starting power: you can move with absolute quiet, over any terrain
  Advances
  •
  1/act You can make any roll with 5 dice instead of your attribute score
  •
  1/act You just happen to have the right tool, small item or weapon you need
  •
  You can hide in shadows and be invisible as long as you don't move
  •
  You can climb any surface and jump down without risk
  •
  You can always escape whenever you're grabbed, bound, cornered, pinned or similar
  Malcail Wose
  Starting power: animals (except shapeshifters in animal form) obey your simple commands
  Advances
  •
  1/act You can look through an animal's eyes, wherever it goes within the act
  •
  1/act You can shapeshift into a small, non-flying woodland animal
  •
  1/act You can speak with an animal and it tells you what it knows
  •
  1/act You summon a non-flying creature to act as your mount that stays with you until 
  the end of the act
  9
  
  •
  You can find food, water and a safe place to sleep, anywhere
  Old Finneban
  Starting power: When you roll no doubles on a setup, you may make an attack or another setup 
  (after you suffer the consequences)
  Advances
  •
  1/act You can give a command to a creature smaller than you, which they'll obey unless 
  it puts them in danger
  •
  1/act Someone you touch loses a tag(-), as long as it makes sense in the narrative
  •
  1/act You or anyone you can see rerolls all dice
  •
  1/act A friendly creature you met in a previous act appears and helps you
  •
  You can take an extra tag before dying
  List of Death Advancements
  Choose one after an act in which you died one or more times.
  The Boglin Caves
  •
  As long as you're touching the ground with your bare feet, you can sense other creatures
  approaching
  •
  Whenever someone tries to charm, enchant or mind control you, instead you gain 
  power over them
  The Valley of Plenty
  •
  You can change your size at will, anywhere from half to double your normal size
  •
  1/act you can (crudely) change the shape of a nonliving thing you touch
  The Desolate Cliffs
  •
  1/act You can turn yourself to stone, and back again. In stone form you can't move but 
  you can't be hurt
  •
  Creatures bigger than you won't harm you
  The Misty Forest
  •
  1/act You can learn someone's deepest desires and fears
  •
  1/act You can see through a wall or other solid object
  10
  
  Character Sheets
  Each player gets one (hastily scribbled down – sorry) sheet, either by choice or randomized. 
  They list your Summer Child name and a short description, plus modifiers to your attributes 
  and an additional attribute unique to your character. They also encourage you to think about 
  how you may act on your quest. Check a box or write something yourself. If you want, you can 
  keep it secret from the other players, although you should show it to the GM.
  11
  
  12
  
  The following are the hero sheets. Each player gets one, by choice or randomized. Fill in the 
  name, attribute modifiers and extra attribute from your Summer Child to complete your hero 
  sheet. There's room to write down tags and note advances, either from memory of your heroic 
  past, or from reincarnating in the Otherworld.
  13
  
  14
  
  15
  
  Sample monsters
  Boglin
  Wound value: 2
  □ severely wounded
  □ dead
  A boglin places one tag(-). If solitary often “bitten” or “stabbed”. In a group, often “swarmed by 
  boglins”.
   
  Yttin
  Wound value: 6
  □ shaken 
  □ wounded 
  □ 
  □ severely wounded 
  □ 
  □ dead
  An Yttin places two tags(-) on different characters, such as “thrown to the ground”, “dazed by 
  blows” or “broken shield”.
  Water Sprite
  Wound value: 3
  □ wounded 
  □ severely wounded 
  □ turned to water and fled
  A Water sprite places either a tag (-) such as “blinded by spray” or once per scene a tag(--) such 
  as “under the sprite's control”.
  16
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Collections/Kid Friendly/3. Rules Lite Collection/Once We Were Heroes.pdf