Unleash your wildest, unhinged fantasies in this lightweight, chaos-driven, mystical TTRPG. Magic is abundant and deadly in the game of Mischief where each choice matters, outcomes are surprising, and gameplay is fast and furious!
Become a man-eating mushroom or a wizard that turns people into cheese! Use your powers to alter memories, tear through crowds with improvised weapons, or just be a really good liar.
Two games, infinite fun for any campaign or setting
Mischief is a new chaos-driven, fiction-first, lightweight fantasy TTRPG designed to build wild, swingy adventures that will keep your table pumped from Session 0 to their big Finale. Venture to Olmaricya, the fantastical setting of actual play podcast Dungeons & Drimbus,for adventures in a post-apocalypse fantasy world full of twisted magic and renewed, weird life that fights to prevail in the face of greed, misfortunes, and evil.
- OR, take Mischief and plop it into your own setting with its easy to customize rules -
Plus, City of Jerry takes the Mischief engine and hacks it for an Osmosis Jones-style microscopic adventure inside the human body that is guaranteed to delight (and occasionally gross out) your table.
Mischief is easy to play, but impossible to master! Character creation is literally as easy as 1-2-3 and every choice is made to highlight your character's journey. A single, flexible D12 resolution lets players roll tons of dice without complex math to slow the game down. Benevolent Gods will love the simple NPC/Monster management that makes prep a breeze!
Myceliad colonies exhibit a wide range of behaviors. It is not uncommon for them to consume fallen loved ones.
Mischief is all about characters. Choose who you want to be first and foremost. To start, Mischief has 12 unique Species each with a bank of boons and banes to get you started. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Myceliads, Reptiliats, Undead, and more! The world is your oyster.
Then, it's as easy as 1-2-3!
Set the sum of your Stats to 1. BODY (punching crocadogs), MIND (tracking crocadogs), and WILL (taming and/or summoning spectral crocadogs) cover everything you'll do in the game.
Create 2 Expertises. Open ended skills to choose with your Benevolent God that define what your character is best at, bringing failed rolls to mixed successes. Can cover anything from Politics to Explosives to Fancy Swamp Wines.
Pick 3 Abilities. From spells like Transmutation (turning people into cheese) to social abilities like Attractive (convincing others to give you their cheese), utility abilities like Alchemist (enchanting blocks of cheese) or melee abilities like Improvisor (using cheese as boxing gloves), Mischief lets you choose what fits your character best without the constraint of classes.
Bulgos are rabid pack hunters believed to have descended from designer dogs
Every roll moves the story forward. All rolls are resolved with the same, easy levels of success scale that seamlessly develops the adventure. Whether you're fighting mutated designer dogs, seducing dragons, or fleeing carnivorous flies, you'll never have to stop and look up what to roll again!
Luck (Good or Bad) can stack infinitely, stacking the odds in (or against) a character's favor. For each instance of Luck, just roll an extra die and take the highest (or lowest) number. Easy, tangible effects that reward clever play or amp up the stakes.
Crits (natural or otherwise) are always respected, making for thrilling swingy adventures and role-play. D12s hit that sweet spot where character's abilities and progression have tangible benefits/drawbacks, while tossing in enough crits during a session to spice things up.
For our Benevolent Gods, NPCs and Monsters alike have only one stat to track: Power. Their easy-to-make Abilities define how they behave and what makes them unique, while Power is added to all their rolls. Miscreants get the satisfaction of seeing their opponent's effectiveness diminish (potentially opening them up to new strategies) while BGs get to keep their focus on running an exciting adventure.
Not every fight is a fight to the death. Maybe you just need to rough up a ruffian enough so they're more willing to talk. Power and Countdowns make complex tasks or social engagements easy to handle without overcomplicating tasks that feel natural to the players.
Dragons are greedy, lethal creatures. Preparation and creativity are paramount to surviving an encounter.
Miscreants are bound to run into danger sooner or later. With an escalating three Wound system, prepared knuckleheads will have the upper hand and foolish ne'er-do-wells will have clear signs to retreat or try another tactic.
Fights in Mischief are tense! Every choice matters and the tables can turn in an instant. BUT, the fights aren't always deadly. Characters are far more likely to come out with a Trauma (opposite of an Expertise) that will color their adventures moving forward.
Mischief is about ACTION, give it a spin!
Mischief is free to play, free to use on your actual play, and free to remix. And it always will be. This game belongs to the community.
Try the game out yourself with the playtest PDF here! You can also hear us play City of Jerry on the latest season of Dungeons & Drimbus, here!
By supporting our campaign, you can get access to:
Mischief, complete with rules, expansive and unique bestiary, and an introductory adventure. Digital and/or Physical.
City of Jerry with its unique spin on the Mischief engine, bestiary full of pathogens, and introductory adventure. Digital and/or Physical.
One Page One Shots built on the Mischief system like Orc Daddy Island, Legally Green: The Hunt for the Next Orc Mommy, Reindeer Games, and more seen on the Dungeons & Drimbus podcast.
Stretch Goals will include Vampirism/Lycanthropy expansions, Pirate expansions (with unique ship character sheets), Yes, Chef! spinoff (John Wick meets Hells Kitchen), and even physical Mischief-themed dice!
Become a vampire or a werewolf (or bear, hamster, what have you) and wreak havoc on Olmaricya
Take to the seas and terrorize your foes with 3 different sized, customizable ships!
John Wick meets Hell's Kitchen in this game of cutthroat criminal kitchens (as seen on Season 4)
Fancy! Custom click-clacks for makin' mischief!
If we raise enough, we can get MORE fantastic art made for all our games!
The goal of our crowdfund is to raise funds to create physical editions, some more expansions (+spinoffs), and fairly compensate the hardworking artists making our game special!
We've got gorgeous cover art by Goran Gligovic and Juniper Whitney and stunning interior art by Brandon Schooner. Funds raised will help bring the book to life and finalize layout.
At present we have Mischief and City of Jerry ready to go (minus art, layout tweaks, and a few extra monsters and intro adventures)! We believe in and adore this game, so no matter what these will be released in their digital versions.
NOTE: We will collect shipping after the crowdfund is over in order get everyone an accurate, affordable rate. We estimate US shipping will be around $5 while international shipping is likely to fall arund $10-15 depending on location. Our intention is to get the game in your hands this coming winter!
After years of bending TTRPG rules to fit our wacky themes, characters, and plans, we decided it was time to make a game that functioned the way we love to play. Crazy character concepts, insane abilities, wild stunts, deep stories, and high drama without missing a beat.
Mischief is a labor of love for our table of players at Dungeons & Drimbus. A game made to put the story the players are telling first. A game made for expression and freedom to build unique characters. A game that lets you amp up the tension and reward clever thinking without getting bogged down in heavy mechanics.
We wanted to create a game that supports generating new, exciting, and tense stories. Half of that battle is making a system that makes sense, remains consistent, and is flexible enough to be used in any situation. After years of play testing and throwing myriad ideas at the wall, we think we've found it and whittled it down to its purest, best form. Simplicity without limitation. Mischief is hard to "break" because it just isn't that kind of game. That means new players don't need to worry about creating an optimal "build" and veterans can try out crazy combos to their heart's content without making the BG's life a nightmare.
The game is easy to learn, easy to run, easy to hack. And we hope you will! We made a game that we love so much, we believe you will too. Which is why the core rules of Mischief are free! Free to download, free to play, free to use on your podcast, free to hack into your own game. Tabletop games are for everyone. We hope you'll make Mischief yours.
